What is Topaz
Topaz is a mineral principally composed of fluorine aluminium silicate. Pure Topaz is colorless but with the addition of various impurities it becomes a gemstone of many colors including wine, yellow, pale gray or reddish-orange, blue brown, green, blue, light blue, red and even pink. Its hardness is 8 on the Mohs scale of hardness where a diamond is at ten and talc at 1. So it is a fairly hard gemstone. It can be brittle however and care is needed when cutting it. The right cleavage must be found before cutting can commence otherwise one can end up with small shards of almost worthless topaz.
Some of the more striking topaz colors are:
Orange Topaz. This is also known as precious topaz and is the birthstone for November as well as the symbol for friendship, and the state gemstone for the US State of Utah, USA.
Imperial Topaz is yellow, or orange pink and, rarely, pink. The Brazilian Imperial Topaz can very often be found as a bright yellow to deep golden brown hue, sometimes even violet. However, it should be noted that many brown or pale topazes are treated to make them bright yellow, gold, pink or violet colored and some imperial topaz stones will fade on exposure to sunlight for an extended period of time.
Blue Topaz, the Texas state gemstone is usually a heat treated topaz as the naturally occurring Blue Topaz is very rare. For this the colorless, gray or pale yellow and blue material is used and heat treated and irradiated in order to produce a more desired darker blue.
The Mystic Topaz is a colorless topaz which has been artificially coated to give it a desired rainbow effect.
Topaz has been around for at least 2000 years and possibly more. It is though that the name topaz originates from the Greek 'topazos' meaning 'green gemstone'. The Romans used Topaz in their jewelery also and dedicated the stone to the god Jupiter.
The most common topaz is yellow. This is the topaz you will find in the major German gemstone rocks, also called the Schneckenstein , a topaz-bearing rock said to resemble a snail, hence the name, in Saxony. But these topaz gems are usually very small. Larger ones are found in Siberia and brazil where they have been known to be up to the size of a small fist. Care should be taken with topaz from Siberia however. It has a reputation for fading after a period of time. One should always check the origin of topaz before one buys it.
Some names of and for topaz:
Pink Topaz
Blue Topaz
Brown Topaz
Green Topaz
Other names are designated to differentiate various types of topaz:
Precious Topaz - used to distinguish topaz from cheaper fakes, such as citrine
Imperial Topaz - lustrous orange-yellow to orange-brown variety of topaz
Silver Topaz - colorless topaz
Sherry Topaz - orange-brown topaz
London Blue Topaz - deep blue topaz (the deepest blue form of topaz)
Swiss Blue Topaz - deep blue topaz (not as deep blue as London blue topaz)
Paraiba Topaz - sea-green topaz
Brazilian Aquamarine - False name given to aquamarine
Nerchinsk Aquamarine - False name given to aquamarinev
Brazilian Ruby - False name given to pink topaz
Brazilian Sapphire - False name given to blue topaz (as well as blue tourmaline)
Hyacinth is an orange-yellow to yellow-brown variety of topaz. Although the name hyacinth usually is used to describe a gem variety of zircon of that color, it is also occasionally used for topaz (in old manuscripts).
Pyncite is occasionally used to describe a pale yellow topaz.
There are also some false names for topaz and one should be careful as these are not actual topaz. But are in fact Citrine.
Citrine is a yellow to brown variety of quartz that closely resembles Topaz of the same color.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous dealers have adapted false name for Citrine so the unaware buyer thinks he is buying the more valuable Topaz. Any "Topaz" labeled with a prefix name (excluding those in the variety section of this page and the other names discussed below) is heat-treated Citrine. Some of the false names used are:
Gold Topaz
Golden Topaz
Madeira Topaz
False Topaz
Brazilian Topaz
Bahia Topaz
Citrine Topaz
Several other false topaz names are:
Brazilian Topaz - yellow to yellow-brown sapphire
Indian Topaz - yellow to yellow-brown sapphire
King Topaz - yellow to yellow-brown sapphire
Oriental Topaz - yellow to yellow-brown sapphire
Smoky Topaz - unscrupulous name for cut smoky quartz
Star Topaz - yellow star sapphire
None of which are topaz of course.
In any dealings about topaz one should inquire as to the origin, as well as the size, cut and quality of the topaz stone. Also get a guarantee that it IS a topaz and NOT a citrine.
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