Gemstones such as diamonds, sapphires, aquamarines and others are extremely rare and expensive. Due to their high demand and business, the potential market of gemstones has seen a tremendous rise in past few decades with a large involvement of counterfeits and forged copies.
One pair that is difficult to tell apart is the Aquamarine and Blue Topaz stones. Physically, they are very hard to tell apart but in reality, an Aquamarine is much more costly than Blue Topaz. Some people seek advantage by selling Blue topaz in place of Aquamarine to make great profit.
Blue Topaz
Named after an ancient island ‘Topazos’ in Red, Topaz was believed to heal both physical and mental illnesses as well as prevent death. Topaz is naturally white in colour but may develop colour shades by introduction of impurity and inclusions. Iron and Chromium make the Topaz stone appear blue giving it a fair resemblance with Aquamarine.
Topaz scores 8 on the Mohs scale meaning it is very hard and durable than most of the gemstones. It is highly prone to scratches and fractures due to its physical form and build conditions.
Aquamarine
Aquamarines are far more expensive when compared to Topaz or other stones. Derived from Latin words meaning ‘seawater’, these gemstones have a brief history of being considered sacred in Roman and Greek empires.Aquamarine scores around 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale, which means that it has a high resistance to scratches and show great toughness. Ultrasonic and steam cleaners are used to clean and polish the gem, with an exception of liquid inclusions or fractures.
Key differencesbetween Aquamarine and Blue Topaz include:
Aquamarine has the colour of light blue to blue-green while topaz is a gem of all colours that comes in orange, sky blue, pink, light or deep blue, blue-green, green, transparent, light violet and white.
Topaz feels much heavier than an Aquamarine of equal size.
The colour of aquamarine fades in sunlight, whereas the colour of topaz never fades.
Aquamarine is less refractive than topaz and therefore lacks double refraction lines like Blue Topaz.
