Amethyst is the birthstone for February. It is a purple variety of the mineral quartz. Amethyst has a hardness of 7 and is a popular jewelry gemstone available at all price points. Value for amethysts depends almost entirely on color. Some feature a rich purple color that glows with red and blue flashes. Its purple color can be cool and bluish, or a reddish purple that’s sometimes referred to as “raspberry.” Major sources for amethyst are Africa and South America.
Amethyst’s purple color can range from a light lilac to a deep, intense royal purple, and from brownish to vivid. Amethyst also commonly shows what is called color zoning, which in the case of amethyst usually consists of angular zones of darker to lighter color.