Six Translucent Brazilian Amethysts. In the “Old World”, the Europe of insular princely states before the great sea voyages that opened up direct trade with the East and “discovered” the Americas, Amethyst was not only considered a beautiful gemstone, it was also very rare and very costly, and was considered one of the “Cardinal” gemstones, one of the most important gemstones along with Diamond, Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire.
All that changed with the discovery of huge Amethyst Quartz deposits in Brazil, and nowadays even such fine examples of the most purple of gemstones, such as the above Six Translucent Amethysts, are affordable.