How to Spot a Fake Crystal Before You Pay

Very little of what is sold is a deliberate forgery. The common situations are gentler and more widespread: a real stone dyed to look like a rarer one, a real stone heat-treated and sold under a different name, glass or resin sold as quartz, and a cheap mineral sold under an expensive label.

A good deal of it is sold by people who believe what they are telling you, because they were told the same thing. The checks below are not about catching a liar; they are about not paying rare-stone prices for a common stone.

Natural रत्न (ratna, gemstones) are uneven. They have zones, cloudiness, variation in depth of colour, and small imperfections.

Dyed stones look like sweets: vivid, perfectly uniform, and often in colours that do not occur naturally — bright turquoise, electric blue, hot pink agate. If the colour is too good and the price is low, it is dyed.

Two giveaways settle it. Dye collects and darkens in cracks and along drill holes, so look closely at any fracture line or the hole in a bead. And on a dyed piece, rubbing an inconspicuous spot with a cotton bud dipped in acetone will sometimes lift colour — though do not do this to something you have not bought yet.

This is the easiest one, and you can do it in the shop in a few seconds.

Quartz feels cool when you pick it up and stays cool for a moment. Glass warms to your hand almost immediately. Quartz is also noticeably heavier than glass for the same size.

Then hold it up to the light. Glass contains round air bubbles. Natural quartz contains fractures, veils and inclusions, which are angular and irregular — but never perfectly spherical bubbles. A perfectly flawless, perfectly clear large 'quartz' sphere at a low price is almost always glass.

Most citrine on the market is heat-treated amethyst. This is so widespread that it is effectively the norm rather than a scam.

Treated material tends to have a strong orange or reddish-brown tone, often with white at the base, and the colour is concentrated at the tips. Natural citrine is usually a paler, more even lemon or honey colour.

There is nothing wrong with treated citrine, and plenty of people are happy with it. What is wrong is paying a natural-citrine premium for it. If a seller insists a deep orange cluster at a modest price is natural, you now know enough to be sceptical.

A number of trade names describe manufactured or renamed material. None of these are necessarily bad buys — several are attractive — but they are not what the name implies.

Common examples include 'cherry quartz' and 'blue quartz' sold as glass with inclusions, 'goldstone' which is manufactured glass with copper flecks, 'opalite' which is glass, and various 'turquoise' pieces that are dyed howlite or reconstituted powder. 'Alexandrite' at a low price is almost always synthetic.

If a name sounds decorative rather than geological, ask what the mineral actually is.

For crystals used in a home, size and rarity are not what matter. A small clear quartz placed well does the same work in this practice as a large one.

What is worth paying a little more for is a seller who can tell you what the stone is, where it came from, and whether it has been treated — and who does not mind being asked. That honesty is the actual product.

You do not need a certificate for a stone going on a shelf in your home. Save that question for jewellery with a real price attached, and for anything sold as a precious gem.

Be most sceptical where the sales pitch is strongest. A stone described as rare, energetically powerful and urgently needed for your particular problem, at a price that reflects all three, is a sales technique rather than a mineral.

Crystals carry traditional associations, not medical properties, and no stone treats, cures or diagnoses anything. If you are being frightened into a purchase, that is the moment to leave.