Real vs Fake Citrine

What is natural citrine

Natural citrine is quartz that grew yellow in the ground, a color usually credited to traces of iron. It tends to look pale: lemon, straw, honey or smoky gold, often evenly colored or softly zoned. It grows as single points and small groups far more often than as geodes, and sources include Brazil, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The full mineral data is on Mindat's citrine page, and our citrine guide covers its properties and lore.

Heat treated citrine

Heat treated citrine starts as amethyst, or sometimes smoky quartz, heated to several hundred degrees until its original color breaks down and iron turns the crystal yellow, orange or reddish brown. The change is permanent. Most of it comes from the same Brazilian and Uruguayan geodes that supply cheap amethyst, which is why heated citrine so often shows up as clusters, geode chunks and cathedrals. Sellers call it heated citrine, heat treated amethyst or burnt amethyst, and all three names mean the same stone.

Real citrine vs fake: what to check

Real citrine vs fake comes down to five things you can see without a lab:

Color: heated citrine runs burnt orange to red brown. Natural citrine is usually paler, from lemon to honey.
White roots: orange tips fading to milky white bases mark a piece of heated amethyst geode, almost every time.
Form: big clusters, geodes and cathedrals sold as citrine are heated. Natural citrine rarely grows that way.
Price: a large, bright piece at a low price is heated.
Label: honest sellers write heated or heat treated, and natural citrine comes with a locality.

Fake citrine: glass, resin and dye

Fake citrine made of glass or resin is the true fake, since it is not quartz at all. Under a 10x loupe, glass shows round bubbles and curved swirl lines, and molded pieces show seams. Resin feels light and warm in the hand. Yellow glass beads labeled citrine are common in cheap jewelry, and crackled quartz dyed yellow turns up too, with the color sitting in its cracks. Gem labs can separate the rare natural stones from the rest, as Gem-A explains in its guide to testing natural citrine.

Ametrine and half heated amethyst

Ametrine and half heated amethyst both show purple and yellow in one piece, and only one of them is natural. Ametrine is quartz that grew with amethyst and citrine zones side by side, and most of it comes from the Anahí mine in Bolivia. Amethyst heated unevenly can keep purple at its base and turn orange at the tips, which looks similar at a glance. A label that names Bolivia is a good sign; a geode chunk with no locality at all is not.

Natural citrine price

Natural citrine price runs well above heated citrine of the same size, because natural material is scarce. Heated citrine is inexpensive and perfectly fine to own when it is labeled as heated. The problem is mislabeling: a heated cluster sold as natural citrine, at natural citrine prices, with nothing on the label to say otherwise.

Citrine vs yellow topaz

Citrine vs yellow topaz is the other classic mix-up, made worse by old trade names that sold citrine as topaz. Topaz is harder (8 on the Mohs scale against citrine's 7), about a third heavier in the hand, and has one perfect cleavage that citrine lacks. Both are November birthstones, which keeps the mix-up alive.