With a deep purple color and beautiful shine, amethyst is a prized gemstone. The stone is considered to be quite affordable, but it’s still worth a fair amount, and collectors will pay top dollar for the best amethyst pieces.
How much is a pound of amethyst worth?
Amethyst is generally valued and sold by the carat. Raw stones or gems that don’t feature an excellent cut, facets, or quality can sell for as little as $2 per carat, while excellent pieces of amethyst can cost as much as $40 per carat.
A carat is equal to 0.2 grams or about 0.0071 ounces. Another way to look at this is to say that there are 141.748 carats in a single ounce. There are 16 ounces in 1 pound, so we can multiply 16 by 141.748 to find that there are 2,267.96 carats in 1 pound.
We know that the least an amethyst carat is worth is about $2, so if we multiply that by 2,267.96, we can find that, at the lowest end, 1 pound of amethyst is worth about $4,535.92.
Most amethyst costs an average of $22.50 per carat, so 1 pound of average amethyst will cost around $51,029.10. High-end amethyst costs about $40 per carat, so the best amethyst will cost about $90,718.40 per pound.
It’s important to remember that prices fluctuate often, and the cost of amethyst can change due to many factors, including demand.
If you’re buying or selling amethyst, always keep an eye on the market prices and buy at the lowest point. It’s also good to remember that other factors, such as shape, cut, facets, purity, and hue need to be taken into account when purchasing amethyst, as these can all change a stone’s value.
Finally, if the stone is set in jewelry, the jewelry itself might carry a certain value apart from the stone, and stones in jewelry are almost always worth more than a stone by itself.
What is amethyst?
Most people are familiar enough with amethyst to know that it’s a semiprecious stone with a rich purple color. Not many people realize, however, that amethyst is a type of crystalline quartz.
The stone’s amazing color is actually due to irradiation and the presence of impurities and trace elements, which can include iron.
Amethyst is a strong, hard stone, so it can be carved, cut, or polished with relative ease. However, amethyst can lose its color if it is exposed to heat or too much light.
For this reason, anyone who owns amethyst should be cautious about exposing it to high temperatures for long periods of time, such as might occur when using a steamer jewelry cleaner.
Amethyst that has been exposed to heat naturally can turn a yellow or dark smokey brown or black color. Stones like citrine, which is greenish-yellow quartz, are often called burnt amethyst.
What is amethyst used for?
The ancient Greeks once believed that amethyst could protect its owner from drunkenness, so many cups and drinking vessels were carved from the stone.
Today, amethyst is mostly used in making jewelry. Fine pieces of amethyst are cut into faceted stones and used as centerpieces for rings, necklaces, brooches, or earrings.
Amethyst stones of lesser quality might be cut into specific shapes and polished to become beads or embellishments. The stone is the birthstone for February.
Where is amethyst found?
Amethyst occurs naturally all around the world. Many pieces are found in Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, and other parts of Central and South America.
The stone can also be found in Zambia, Canada, Africa, Spain, Russia, South Korea, and Afghanistan. One of the best locations for finding amethyst in the United States is in Arizona, in the Four Peaks area in the Maricopa and Gila Counties.
Amethyst can also be found in Wilkes County in Georgia, and the stone has been found in smaller quantities around the country in places such as Yellowstone National Park, North Carolina, Maine, and Minnesota.