Topaz: Gem Of Many Colors |
If you are seeking a gemstone of many colors, topaz is your answer. Blue topaz is a favorite choice, but topaz also comes in colorless, red, yellow, orange, lavender, pale green, white, gray, reddish brown, and pinkish red. The color most commonly discovered is yellow, and in the Middle Ages "topaz" was used to name any yellow stone. For centuries often what a person identified as a "golden topaz" was really a citrine. Today it is often advertised as "pure topaz" to differentiate it from the "quartz topaz" or citrine.
Pure topaz when mined is colorless, with impurities determining the colored prisms. Lately a type of iridescent topaz has been found in jewelry, and this is attained by coating it with a thin layer of titanium oxide. The name of this gemstone is "mystic topaz". Newly named hues are glacier, ocean, patriot, canary, champagne, kiwi, dawn, teal, and orchid to give you an idea of the raunbow of colors. It is one of the most sought gemstones by collectors.
The word "topaz" is mentioned in the Bible in Exodus 28:17, but historians believe it actually referred to a yellow chrysolite. It is usually discovered in free-growing transparent crystals sometimes in large size in yellow or wine color. Brown and pink-hued crystals are considered very valuable. This is not to be confused with brown quartz sometimes offered under the name topaz.
When discovered naturally in unusual colors, the gemstone can demand high prices. The Europeans used the colorless variety as a substitute for diamonds. As a talisman it was thought to eliminate nightmares, anger, and sadness. It was believed it would make women fertile and men handsome, and protect against poison and death.
This gemstone has been in existence for over 2000 years. The name comes from the Greek word for an island on the Red Sea, "topazos" which means "green gemstone." It can be found in San Diego County, California; Germany, the Czech Republic, Topaz Mountain in Utah; Norway, Afghanistan; the Ural and Illmen Mountains; Australia, Madagascar, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Pakistan, Sweden. Italy. Mexico, and Minas Gerais in Brazil. In 1984, the latter was the site of the biggest topaz ever found which was named "El Dorado" and it is in the British Royal Collection. Large and deeply etched blue crystals have been found in Topsham, Maine. Lord Hill in Stoneham, Maine, has produced unusually large topaz samples, and some of North America's finest examples of white topaz. Enormous samples have come from Braganza in Portugal, and were often mistaken for diamonds.