November Birthstone: Citrine & Topaz Jewelry

November has two: topaz and citrine. Both are recognised in the modern list, and either is correct for a November birthday.

They offer very different looks - citrine in warm yellows and oranges, blue topaz in cool blues - so the choice is a real one rather than a formality.

Yellow topaz is the older traditional association, and citrine was added as an alternative largely because it offers a similar warm colour at a more accessible price.

No, and this is the most persistent confusion around November. Citrine is quartz, the same mineral family as amethyst. Topaz is a completely separate aluminium silicate mineral.

They differ in chemistry, in hardness - citrine at 7, topaz at 8 - and in how they behave, since topaz has a cleavage direction and citrine does not.

The confusion is historical. Yellow topaz and citrine were sold interchangeably for a long time, and the misleading trade name 'topaz quartz' made it worse.

Madeira citrine is a trade name for the deeper orange to reddish-orange shades of citrine, named after the colour of the fortified wine from Madeira.

It sits at the richer end of the citrine colour range, well beyond the pale lemon and golden yellows most people picture.

The deeper shades are generally more sought after than pale ones, though evenness of colour matters as much as depth. Honey citrine describes the warm golden-brown tones in the same family.

They are three defined shades of blue topaz, and the names describe colour rather than origin or quality.

Sky blue is the palest - a light, clear blue. Swiss blue is a bright, saturated mid-blue that reads as vivid. London blue is the deepest, an inky blue with a faintly grey or steely cast.

None is better than the others. Sky blue is the most delicate, Swiss the most brilliant, and London the most sophisticated to many eyes - the choice depends on the metal it is set in and on the wearer's taste.

Almost always, yes. Natural blue topaz is genuinely rare, and virtually all blue topaz sold anywhere is colourless topaz that has been irradiated and then heated.

The resulting colour is stable and permanent - it does not fade back over time - and the practice is standard and openly disclosed across the trade.

Treated blue topaz is real topaz. The treatment changes the colour of the stone, not what the stone is.

Much of it is. Natural citrine is uncommon, and a large share of commercial material is amethyst - the same quartz species - heated until the purple converts to yellow or orange.

The treatment is stable, permanent and long-established, and the result is genuinely citrine: the same mineral, with a different colour.

It is also why citrine is available in large, clean sizes at accessible prices, in the same way amethyst is.

It depends on what you mean by durable, which makes this more interesting than it looks. Topaz is harder at 8 on the Mohs scale, so it resists scratching better than citrine at 7.

But topaz has a pronounced cleavage direction - a plane along which the crystal splits cleanly - so a sharp knock at the wrong angle can break a topaz whose surface would have resisted a scratch.

Citrine has no cleavage, which makes it the more forgiving of the two in practice despite being the softer stone. For a topaz ring worn often, a protective setting is worth having.

Citrine sits naturally in yellow gold, which reinforces its warmth, and it looks strikingly different in white metal, where the yellow reads cleaner and more modern. Rose gold suits the deeper Madeira shades particularly well.

Blue topaz is usually set in white gold or platinum, which keeps the blue cool and clean. Yellow gold against blue topaz is a strong complementary contrast that works well with the deeper London blue.

All of these combinations appear across the collection, and looking at the same design in two colours is the fastest way to decide.

Citrine handles daily wear well at 7 on the Mohs scale, and it has no cleavage direction to worry about. A setting that protects its edges is still sensible in a ring.

Topaz is harder but wants more thought because of its cleavage. In a pendant or earrings that is irrelevant; in an everyday ring, a bezel or a lower profile is the sensible route.

Both stones are fine in daily wear as necklaces, pendants and earrings without any special consideration.

Warm water, a little mild soap and a soft brush for both, then a thorough rinse and a soft cloth.

Avoid ultrasonic and steam cleaning on both, and particularly on topaz, where sudden temperature change and vibration are a real risk given its cleavage. Citrine, like amethyst, can also be affected by heat.

Keep both away from household cleaning chemicals and from prolonged strong light, and store them apart from harder stones.