Heliodor gemstone

Physical properties of heliodor

Characteristics of heliodor

Heliodor (golden beryl) in Greek means "gift of the sun" (although they also called another precious stone - amber). And heliodor deserves its name - the bright yellow color of this gem really looks like the sun.

Heliodor is also known as "golden beryl", because it really is a variety of beryl.

Although the color scheme of heliodors is very diverse - greenish yellow, lemon yellow, golden yellow, honey. And above all, defect-free stones of even saturated color are valued. And, as a rule, the more transparent the heliodor, the higher its price will be.

The name of this precious stone was given by the Greeks in honor of the god Helios (God the Sun). Although in the old days all transparent stones of bright yellow color were called heliodors. Usually these were beryl, but there could be other stones - citrine, topaz, corundum, quartz.

A characteristic difference between heliodor and other yellow gemstones is the presence of liquid and gas-liquid inclusions - these inclusions can be used to identify natural stones.

But when buying jewelry with heliodors, you should be more careful - now there are a lot of artificial stones that are almost identical to natural heliodors.

In nature, heliodor crystals sometimes reach large sizes. In the Mineralogical Museum of the Mining Institute of St. Petersburg there is a 20 cm heliodor.

How much does heliodor cost

Heliodor is estimated from 50 to 150 dollars per 1 carat. Usually all heliodors have good quality characteristics - since natural crystals are of good quality.

As an imitation, a variety of yellow quartz is often used - citrine. But citrines have a lower hardness and natural stones usually have a paler color.