Amethyst ranges in color from light pale violet to deep purple. The "Rose de France" is a lighter version and can be seen in much Victorian jewelry. The deeper colors are more valuable, especially a rich purple with rose streaks. It is the birthstone for the month of February.

Amethyst is mined in Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Argentina, Zambia, Namibia and other African countries. Very dark, small stones are mined in Australia.
African Amethyst generally has better, more saturated color in smaller sizes than the amethyst from South America, which is fairly large.

Amethyst is available in a wide range of calibrated sizes and shapes. Generally Amethyst is cut in standardized dimensions, though the larger stones can be bought in free sizes.

Purple is the color of royalty. Amethyst is transparent purple Quartz. Thus all throughout history the Amethyst has been in high demand. The British Crown Jewels feature Amethysts, and the Egyptians, along with Catherine the Great, favored this jewel in particular.

Amethyst has also been believed to encourage celibacy and to symbolize piety. Churches in the Middle Ages were ornamented with this stone, and Catholic bishops often wore Amethyst rings.

Tibetans often fashion rosaries from Amethyst as it is believed to be sacred to Buddha.
Leonardo Da Vinci wrote that the Amethyst was able to dissipate evil thoughts and quicken the intelligence.

The name Amethyst stems from the Greek word “amethystos”, meaning “not drunk”. Amethyst was used in Greece as an antidote to drunkenness. Often wine goblets were carved from or featured the Amethyst. In a Greek myth, Dionysius, the god of intoxication, had sworn revenge on the next mortal to cross his path for an insult he had received from another mortal. He created raging tigers to carry out this vengeance. Amethyst, a fair maiden, happened to be this next unsuspecting mortal, and was on a journey to pay her respect to the goddess Diana. Diana turned Amethyst into a statue of Quartz to protect her from the tigers of Dionysius. Dionysius discovered the beautiful woman turned to a statue and wept tears of wine over her in remorse for his actions, staining the Quartz purple. Hence the Amethyst jewel.