At the same time, there's a new and exciting use of warm colored gemstones such as citrine, amber, mandarin garnet, opal, amethyst, and red spinel. Also new for summer are many refreshingly big and bold jewelry designs in bright yellow and pink gold. Lush, Lovely Color At A Remarkably Low Price Treasured for thousands of years, beautiful, transparent amethyst is one of the most popular of all colored gemstones. Extremely rare in ancient times, amethyst is said to have rivaled diamonds in value. The sparkling purple gem only became affordable after the discovery of large deposits in Brazil and Uruguay at the beginning of the 20th century.
Amethyst is the most important member of the quartz family.
It ranges in color from a lovely pale lavender, to a rich reddish violet, to a deep, velvety purple red. It is also a hard, durable gem, measuring 7 on the Mohs scale, which means it is suitable for everyday wear in any kind of jewelry. An ancient myth tells how it got this power. One day a nymph named Amethyst was attacked by ferocious tigers owned by Bacchus, the god of wine. To save her, the goddess Diana turned her into pure white stone.