Are they glass or ?

take them to a jewler and ask to use their loupe? Ask them to tell you? Diana

We had a discussion about etching stones here recently. If I recall correctly, the etching medium damages the crystaline structure of quartz (which amythest is a form of).

Tina

I'd get out my loupe and have a look for inclusions in the stones, that's a pretty good give away. All except the most perfect of stones have tiny defects, colour variations and bits and pieces in them. Also compare each stone, is the cut slightly irregular from stone to stone? That could mean they are hand cut, although if done my a master cutter, they could be very consistant so that's not always a guide.

The great state of Missouri actually has some useful information about this on one of their Web sites: "You can use a simple field test to separate real amethyst quartz from glass fakes. Lightly rest the unidentified item on your cheek: quartz has high thermal conductivity and will feel cool to the touch; glass, on the other hand, should feel warm." I would add that "warm" is a relative term. Either amethyst or glass would feel much, much cooler than plastic, for example.

- Steve R St Louis

So the key here would be to compare your rosary beads to a *known* piece with either glass or amethyst beads -- preferably both, if you can find them.

Celine

Most glass beads seem to have a very consistent color throughout, whereas amethyst will have variations in tone. Also the color of amethyst seems "softer", a little more translucent, than glass. Of course, you'd pretty much need a sample of both to understand what I mean!