Citrine
Citrine is yellow to orange quartz. Before modern gemology it was confused with topaz, so it has little lore of its own, and most citrine on sale today is amethyst that has been heated.
Meaning
Citrine is the yellow form of quartz. GIA explains that before modern gemology its colour led people to confuse it with topaz, and that natural citrine is rare: most citrine on the market is Amethyst that has been heat-treated, and large amethyst geodes from Brazil are heated whole into citrine “cathedrals”. It shares November with topaz on the modern birthstone list (November birthstone).
Origin and history
GIA’s own history of citrine is mostly a history of quartz in general. It notes that citrine jewellery survives from the Victorian era and suggests that the stone was valued earlier too.
The citrine that saved Benvenuto Cellini
The best-known story with a citrine in it is a poisoning that failed. George Frederick Kunz tells it of the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, at a time when diamond dust was thought the deadliest of poisons. Eating his midday meal one day, Cellini felt something grate between his teeth, took the bright grains for diamond and gave himself up for lost, until he tried crushing one between his knife and the window-sill and it broke. After his release he learned that an enemy had given a diamond to a gem-cutter, Lione Aretino, to grind into his food. The cutter was poor, the diamond was worth a hundred scudi, and he ground up a citrine instead. Cellini put his survival down to that alone.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comNovember birthstones: topaz and citrineCitrine shares November with topazRead next
- Next in Crystal and gemstone loreCarnelianCarnelian is red-orange chalcedony, one of the oldest stones engraved as seals. Ancient Egyptians made heart amulets of it, Islamic tradition held that the Prophet wore a carnelian seal ring, and a medieval Spanish lapidary said it gave a timid speaker courage.
- The same shape in Aztec symbols and godsCoatlicueThe Aztec earth goddess whose name means “serpent skirt”, mother of Huitzilopochtli. Her colossal statue in Mexico City has two facing serpents for a head, a necklace of hands and hearts and a skirt of woven snakes.
See also
Amethyst, Rose quartz, Clear quartz, Onyx, Bloodstone, Moonstone.
Sources
- Citrine (GIA Gem Encyclopedia), Gemological Institute of America, About citrine; facts
- Citrine History and Lore (GIA), Gemological Institute of America, History and lore
- The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, by George Frederick Kunz, 1913, J. B. Lippincott (Project Gutenberg edition), ch. 4 (diamond dust as a poison; Cellini); November in the 1912 list
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from diamonds or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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