Is all of that Citrine and Amethyst real?

The answer to this question may surprise you. Man-made or synthetic material is becoming prevalent in both cut and rough stones. This is a trend that I have talked about before on most of the email lists like the USFG.

As much as 80% or more of the cut stones being sold commercially may be man-made, depending on the type of stone. Below are pictures of cut stones I took at some Indian dealers tables, they were selling the cut stones (Amethyst, Citrine, Ametrines) for $2-5/carat, they would not admit that it was man-made.

Look at the color uniformity, and the sizes. What do you think? Natural? Man-made?

The vast majority of man-made material is cut and sold in the finished gemstone market.

But there is some man-made rough being sold as natural, it is not common but it does happen. I would guess, and it is just a guess because there are no real figures available, that 10% to 30% of some rough parcels are synthetic. Like I said this is not common, but I have seen it.

It is almost impossible to spot man-made material that has been mixed into a natural rough parcel for the average person. Most experienced rough dealers will spot it or at least be suspicious.

Of course there are also parcels that are completely natural and some honest people selling them. In most cases the parcels depend on the quality of people you are dealing with. In other words who you are dealing with is important.

Frankly I find that I see man-made material in parcels and or being sold as a natural parcel once and a while, but not very often. It's really not that common in most rough being sold, unless you are buying from questionable people (too good to be true deals). Especially when dealing with the mines and better quality dealers.

Like I said the vast majority of man-made rough with a few exceptions is being cut and sold as finished gemstones.

Note: I have always been of the opinion that the people that make man-made gemstones (especially ones like Emeralds, Tazanite, Diamonds, Rubies, Quartz's) should be required by law to put a dye tag in their products. One that you would only see in a certain wave length special light in the rough that denotes man-made. One of the Ruby manufactures does put a tag like this in their man-made material , I do not know if it accidental or on purpose, but it keeps things honest. But they are about the only people that do tag their material.

If all the manufacturers selling and marketing their material as man-made were required to dye tag their products, it would make no difference to the man-made market. But the fact that most of the man-made manufacturers do not use something like a dye tag and will not do it. Well this has always made me wonder what their real market is?

Tips on spotting it man made materials.

Look for a really cheap price, if it is too good to be true, it is.

If the parcel looks all exactly alike in both color and tone, it may be man-made. Real Quartz is usually varied in both size and color. Although the man-made material is getting better, the new processes produce both twinning planes and color zones in the finished Quartz.

Look for crystal points in the parcel. As you can see in the pictures above, most of the man-made material is produced in large blocks. They break them up (cobb) into smaller pieces to make the rough look real. But there will be no points because they would need to cut them. Not that it could not happen, but they would be unlikely to spend the time and effort for the money.

Look for the pebble like surface that occurs on man-made material. Look at the pictures above, you will see what I mean. Once you know what it looks like it is easy to spot.

Size is often a good indication of man-made material. If the stone is very large and great color, especially for the price, beware.

Below are a few hints from other people.

Just my two cents on hydro-thermal beryl and Quartz. Some characteristics of hydro-thermal Quartz and Beryl for ID purposes are that they usually have clear "seed plates" and they have inclusions that are typically only seen in hydro- thermally grown crystals. One inclusion in hydro-thermally grown material is the "nail head spicuale" which is a phenikite inclusion with a growth tube behind it facing out away from the seed plate. (I have no clue how phenikite crystals could end up as an inclusion in a synthetic, if anyone knows please let me know) Another inclusion found in synthetic Quartz is called the "bread crumb inclusion" by the GIA. It used to be that synthetic Quartz was only grown in untwinned crystals, but I have heard that Quartz is grown as twinned crystals too. I think that they originally grew Quartz to get twinned crystals for radios and watches. You can see if the Quartz is twinned in a polariscope; also look for color zoning I also saw some synthetic Aquamarine at the show too.

Heath

Nice work on spotting synth. Qtz I even saw smokey Qtz that looked just like the real thing. There is no limits for mans ingenuity!! I have one more clue for spotting. Many synth. Qtz has a foggy seed og natural Qtz in the middle of the x-stal. It's sharp lined, original bubbles will be cut in halves, not at all looking like natural inclusions. I suppose newer synthetics overcome this by using synthetic seeds, but if you see this foggy seed outline, you know it's man-made. Isn't gemology just marvelous. You never end learning. Till a year ago, I thought synth. Qtz. could be spotted on natural color. And now it's even possible to make synth. Ametrines (ref. GIA). Lucky synthetics is great to facet too.

Jón.

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