Chalcedony gemstone

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Physical properties of chalcedony

Hardness: 6.5-7 out of 10 on the Mohs scale
Luster: glassy, waxy, matte
Transparency: translucent, translucent
Color: colorless, yellow, blue, green, red, brown, gray

Characteristics of chalcedony

In fact, it turns out that chalcedony is a whole group of different stones, which are varieties of translucent quartz.

The name "chalcedony", according to one version, comes from the name of the area in Asia Minor - Chalcedon. In the old days, even the stone was often called "Kalkidon".

Of course, not all chalcedony go to jewelers for processing, but only those stones that have a beautiful color or an unusual pattern.

Chalcedony. Gemstone. chalcedony stones, chalcedony rings

In fact, chalcedony is usually understood to mean such stones that have a very pale tone - milky yellow, milky blue, greenish blue. For example, blue chalcedony (sky-colored stones) looks very beautiful. People even gave him very romantic and beautiful names - sapphirine, Mecca stone, moonstone or St. Stephen's stone.

However, there are chalcedony and very bright colors. And since there are a lot of chalcedony, they were divided into groups (by color). For example, stones with bright red spots are called heliotropes, pink ones are called carnelian, carnelians have a specific red color (meat), emerald green stones are chrysoprase, brown ones are sarders. Layered stones with a subtle difference in color are called agates, but if the color of different layers is sharply different from the neighboring ones, this is onyx.

Varieties of the precious stone chalcedony:

  • common chalcedony - milky gray, bluish gray, bluish gray chalcedony
  • carnelian - yellow, orange, red, pink, brown chalcedony
  • sarders (sards) - reddish, chestnut, brown-brown chalcedony
  • chrysoprase - green, emerald, bluish chalcedony
  • agate - ring-banded chalcedony of blue, gray, reddish, pinkish, yellowish, white, brown, black colors
  • onyx - banded chalcedony of a wide variety of colors
  • jaspers - chalcedony of various colors and structures, many varieties
  • plasma - onion green, olive chalcedony
  • cacholongs - milky white chalcedony
  • sapphirines - blue, blue, light purple chalcedony
  • cersgats - waxy-yellow chalcedony
  • myrikkites - gray chalcedony with blood-red inclusions of cinnabar, rare, highly valued

Beryl gemstone
See also: Rose quartz gemstone
Diamond gemstone

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