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PRIMARY: AMETHYST - "The stone of metamorphosis and elegance"

Amethyst, the primary February birthstone, is a semi-precious gemstone with a hardness level of 7 on Moh's hardness scale. In ancient times, before the discovery of huge amethyst deposits in South America, this purple variety of quartz was very rare, and considered as precious a gemstone as ruby and emerald.

The name "amethyst" comes from Greek: a meaning not, and methustos meaning intoxicated, as the Greeks and Romans alike believed that wearing amethyst jewelry prevented intoxication. What's more, as recently as the 1800s, people, most notably the poet Lord Byron, were known to drink wine from amethyst goblets to prevent drunkenness.

While amethyst is a fairly hard birthstone when compared to some of the others, it is vulnerable to shifts in color due to radiation or heat. It has been suggested that sunbathing while wearing amethyst jewelry could cause color changes. When amethyst is heated, its color changes to green, becoming green amethyst or prasiolite, and eventually to yellow to become citrine. A stone of both colors is known as ametrine.