Amegreen Identification Guide

What Amegreen Looks Like

Amegreen is a trade name for a single quartz crystal (or slice/cabochon cut from one) that shows distinct zones of purple amethyst and green prasiolite, frequently with bands of milky or clear quartz between them. The colors are soft and pastel rather than saturated: a lilac-to-grape purple grading into a sage or apple green. Luster is vitreous (glassy), transparency ranges from transparent to translucent, and the underlying material is ordinary macrocrystalline quartz.

When rough, the host is typically a six-sided (hexagonal) quartz prism with pyramidal terminations; the color is concentrated in growth zones, so you often see the purple at the termination end and green lower on the crystal.

Step-by-Step Field-ID Checklist

1. Confirm it is quartz first. Look for glassy luster, conchoidal (shell-like) fracture, and no flat cleavage faces.
2. Test hardness — quartz is Mohs 7 and will scratch glass and a steel knife easily.
3. Look for the two-color pairing. Genuine Amegreen shows purple AND green in the same piece, usually with a colorless or white quartz boundary.
4. Check for natural zoning. Color should follow straight growth bands or angular boundaries, not surface coatings or pooling.
5. Examine transparency — natural Amegreen is clear-to-translucent quartz, not a milky dyed mass.

Key Diagnostic Tests

• Mohs hardness: 7. Scratches glass; not scratched by a knife.
• Streak: white (color is too pale to show on a streak plate; this rules out softer colored minerals).
• Cleavage/fracture: none; conchoidal fracture — a reliable quartz signature.
• Specific gravity: ~2.65, the same as all quartz.
• No acid reaction, not magnetic.

Common Look-Alikes

• Ametrine: the closest relative, but ametrine pairs purple with yellow/orange citrine, not green. If the second color is green, it is Amegreen (prasiolite); if golden, it is ametrine.
• Fluorite (green/purple banded): softer at Mohs 4, shows perfect octahedral cleavage (flat angled faces) and will be scratched by a knife — quartz will not.
• Dyed or assembled quartz: dye concentrates in cracks and surface pits; natural zoning follows internal growth planes. A loupe revealing color pooled in fractures signals treatment.
• Green and purple glass: glass has no crystal faces, often contains gas bubbles, and feels warmer; it may show swirl lines rather than crystallographic zoning.

Where It Is Found

Most Amegreen on the market comes from Brazil and Bolivia, where amethystine quartz occurs in volcanic geode and hydrothermal settings. The green prasiolite component is sometimes natural and sometimes the result of gentle heating of amethyst; reputable sellers disclose this.