Lets start with the awkward bit, because it is the most interesting thing about this stone. Pink amethyst is not amethyst.

Amethyst is purple because iron sits inside the quartz lattice and the crystal grew that way. The pink in pink amethyst comes from tiny particles of iron oxide suspended between layers of quartz instead, which makes it a quartz with hematite in it rather than a true amethyst. 

Mineralogists argue about it, and some would call it pink quartz or hematite-included quartz. You will find it sold as pink amethyst everywhere, including by me, so it is worth knowing what the name actually refers to.

It is also new. The material was only recorded in any real quantity around 2019, out of Chubut province in Patagonia, Argentina, and the trade name was settled on fairly quickly afterwards. That is the whole history, and it is only a few years long. There is no medieval lapidary entry, no Greek myth, and no Victorian collection to refer back to, because the stone was not on the market when any of that was being written. It usually comes out of the same deposits as quartz geodes and forms in banded, layered masses, which is why the colour often runs in soft lines through a piece.

Traditionally associated with

There is no folk tradition for pink amethyst, it's simply not an old enough discovery. In modern practice it gets kept beside amethyst and treated as a gentler relative of it.

How I'd keep it

The quartz in it is ordinary quartz at seven on the hardness scale, but the pink is the part you are protecting, and it is softer than the quartz around it. Keep it out of long spells of direct sun, because the colour will fade over time. 

Wash in cool water, dry with a soft cloth, and never scrub it, since scouring the surface is what dulls the banding. Keep it clear of acids and household cleaners. A tower stands on a shelf or a desk and wants turning now and then so the bands catch the light.

What to watch for

Because the name is contested, the honest question to ask is where it came from. Patagonia is the source behind the name, although we are creating history with this stone as we go on and so deposits are being found elsewhere. 

Dyed quartz is the other thing to watch for, and the test is the usual one: dye sits in the cracks, colour that runs through the stone does not. Genuine pink amethyst is banded and often a little uneven, so a piece that is one flat, even pink all over is unlikely to be it.

In the shop

The Pink Amethyst Tower at £40 is the piece I carry. If you want the stone the name borrows from, the Amethyst page covers the real thing, including why a true amethyst and this one look related and are not.

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