Golden Topaz: Information & Buy Golden Imperial Topaz Online

Topaz is an aluminum silicate containing about 20% water and fluorine. The crystals with more fluorine than water appear blue or colorless; those with more water than fluorine are golden brown, or pink, in rare cases. Officially, gems containing a hint of pink are often called imperial topaz, other rare natural colors such as golden-yellow and golden-brown are also part of imperial topaz. So when it comes to golden topaz, we are talking about golden imperial topaz.

Though given the name "golden topaz", it covers range of colors. In addition to golden-yellow, it can also be light-orange, dark-orange, golden-red, and pink-yellow. When peach-hued prisms are placed in ovens and heated, a fraction of them can change to pink. This color transition is permanent with the risk of fracturing the gems. The finest golden topaz crystals come from the Ouro Preto area in Brazil, and this wedge shaped prism on the right is typical of them. Some may show color zoning from golden brown to pink.

Golden topaz is a popular imperial topaz, it is a dark amber stone. Ouro Preto, one of the major topaz mines, has produced much of it. Tons of crystal are mined there, but very few are good enough to be a facet-graded gem. They usually come in small quantities, some just a little more than one gram. This is why they use small stones for jewelry. At first these gems look cubical and rough, the polished stone has a strong glow. Since golden topaz is a unique stone, they are usually sold at high quality and are hard to replace with cheaper gemstones.

In ancient Egypt, Golden topaz was though to be “fallen sunlight that fell to earth”. It was sacred to many gods including Ra, the sun god, and Jupiter, the Roman sun god. Its long history started many centuries ago. It was believed to hold the power of the sun, making the wearer invincible and increasing his/her strength and endurance, and even restoring sight, both physical and metaphorical. They were purer than any other stones and were worn as amulets to ward off evil spirits. The sun-like brightness of the golden topaz was said to imbue its wearers with the ability to see through magical spells and revealing the truth. Golden-yellow topaz also was believed to reveal poison by changing its color, and alert the person who wore it to the sinister intentions of others. Golden topaz is also a popular healing stone. In the middle ages, golden topaz soaked in wine for three days was thought to cure bad vision, and ancient people used it to cure many illnesses like fever, asthma, tuberculosis, insomnia, depression, and blood disorders. Another common belief is that it will increase wisdom, giving energy and happiness. Perhaps this is why the yellow/golden topaz is the chosen stone for gray and gloomy November.

Yellow/Gold topaz helps assimilates new knowledge to use for practical application. It is an excellent stone for students and researchers when combined with citrine.

Golden topaz is associated with the area between the Second (Sacral) and Third (Solar Plexus) Chakras. It is used for spiritual healing of issues related to conflicts between emotions and one's true inner path.

Like all other topazes which have perfect cleavage, golden topaz shouldn’t be knocked, since it will easily break if done so. It should be cleaned often, but it doesn’t smudge as easily and scratches are hard to see. Fine-class jewelry should be inspected once in a while to make sure it isn’t damaged. When cleaning, make sure golden topaz is properly submerged in gentle soap and water, and make sure it doesn’t stay in for too long. Twenty minutes is the average time.

Though yellow topaz and citrine are chemically two very different stones, citrine has quite some similarities as yellow topaz, therefore sometimes wrongly sold as "yellow topaz", some called citrine quartz topaz or even "the yellow topaz" which is very much misleading. Topaz is aluminum silicate, one of the hardest minerals in nature, pretty close to sapphire and ruby, and that is the inclusion of oxygen, fluorine, hydrogen, silicon or aluminium give it its color. Citrine is a quartz crystal who gets the color from iron impurities, and it is softer than topaz with its hardness measured only between 6.5 and 7 compared to 8 for topaz.Citrine also lacks the brilliance of a topaz. Due to its perfect basil cleavage, topaz can be broken easily, a line of cleavage can be seen clearly in some crystals. If the topaz is used in jewelry, the setting must therefore provide protection from accidental knocks. Citrine, on the other hand, lacks the quality of cleavage, this makes it both more durable and more fragile than topaz.

Topaz is a traditional gifts for the 4th wedding anniversary, but imperial topaz is a gemstone specifically for the 23rd anniversary; while blue topaz is the birthstone for December, yellow, golden topaz along with citrine are the birthstones for November.