What is a Citrine?
Citrine is a variety of quartz whose color ranges from a pale yellow to brown. Natural citrines are rare; most commercial citrines are heat-treated amethysts or smoky quartzes. It is nearly impossible to tell cut citrine from yellow topaz visually, but they differ in hardness. Citrine has ferricimpurities, and is rarely found naturally. Brazil is the leading producer of citrine. The name is derived from Latin citrina which means "yellow" and is also the origin of the word "citron." The hardness of citrine on the Mohs hardness scale ranges from 6.5 to 7.
