Double Terminated Amethyst Crystal with Smoky Center-#AMTH04-4
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Amethyst

Popular Purple Minerals

Everybody loves the color purple, a color has an old association with royalty.  The dye known Tyrian purple was a luxury item.  Created from the secretions of a certain sea snail it was famous for the purple color not fading over time but in fact become me even brighter and more beautiful.  Alexander the great and his successors or the color purple is a symbol of royal authority.  They say the King Solomon decorated the ancient Jewish temple of Jerusalem with purple, and the roman Republic the color was restricted to high ranking members of the elite.  During the time of the Roman empire, production of the color would be nationalized, and use of it would be restricted to the emperor, giving rise to the phrase “raised to the purple” meaning becoming emperor.

It’s no surprise that the love of the color purple resists even today.  Some of the most beloved crystals purple in color.  In this article we will list the number of the more popular than commonly found purple crystals and stones.

1st Century Greek or Roman Amethyst Oval

Greek or Roman; Intaglio of Nike on Amethyst

By This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60424477

Perhaps the most popular purple crystal is Amethyst, a lilac colored variety of quartz.  The name derives from ancient Greek and refers to a belief that the stone protected its owner from becoming drunk.  The crystal was often worn by the ancient Greeks, and make large drinking vessels from it to protect the drinker from drunkenness.  The purple color in amethyst quartz comes from impurities of iron and occasionally other transition metals and irradiation.  The ancient Egyptians and romans used amethyst as a gemstone, and often carved it in the intaglio style.  The majority of amethyst today comes from Brazil and Uruguay.  Amethyst can be found in crystals ranging from very small to very large, and it will oftentimes form large crystals, crystal clusters, and even geodes.

Check out our amethyst for sale.

Rare, impressively attractive, purple-colored mineral charoite is only known from a relatively small area in Siberia.

By James St. John – Charoitite (charoite-dominated potassic metasomatite) (Early Cretaceous, 115-120 Ma; mine in the headwaters of the Davan-Ditmara streams area, south of Olekminsk, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia) 4, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84501150

Charoite is a rare, usually translucent silicate mineral ranging in color from lavender to purple.  It does not form individual crystals and is only found in Siberia.

Beautiful, floater crystals of lepidolite, Minas Gerais, Brazil

By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10138061+

Pink two purple and color, lithium rich Lepidolite is a typically soft mica mineral.  Only when lepidolite is associated to hard quartz can it be cut and polished for use as a gemstone.

Green and Purple Fluorite

By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK – Green and Purple Fluorite, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64153750

Fluorite comes in many colors but purple is the most common.  Some of the best examples originated in China, Morrocco, and Illinois.  Fluorite can be in any number of shapes, including cubes, octohedrons, and botryoidal forms.  Oftentimes Fluorite will glow under ultraviolet light (i.e. fluoresce).  Fluorite is popular with collectors as it’s usually reasonably priced because it’s fairly common.

Pretty purple sugilite on a matrix of bladed barite crystals

By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10129877

Sugilite is an uncommon grape jelly colored cyclosilicate mineral.  Is often used a gemstone, and some people believe that it has spiritual healing powers.

Botryoidal Purple Grape Agate Chalcedony from Indonesia

By JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86319528

Grape agate is an uncommon botryoidal mineral.  Most of it is purple in color, although we have seen blue varieties.  It is neither an agate nor a chalcedony.  It is instead spherical nodules of amethyst that formed around seed crystals and which interlinks as it grows.  It is beautiful but expensive, but originates in Indonesia.

Tanzanite (Zoisite) rough stone 

By Didier Descouens – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9409630

Tanzanite is a beautiful crystal that can appear purple, blue, or burgundy depending on the orientation of the crystals.  It is named after Tanzania, in which it is found.  It’s a variety of zoisite that contain vanadium.