One little unknown fact about Topaz is it’s colorless in it’s pure form.  Topaz is naturally transparent but only gains its hints of color from impurities.  These impurities usually give the topaz a hint of wine red, pale gray, yellow, blue brown or reddish-orange.  Topaz can also be found in colors of green, blue, gold, white, pale green, pink (rare), opaque, reddish-yellow or transparent/translucent.

The traditional November birthstone is orange topaz, which is also a precious topaz.  This same gemstone is also the gemstone of Utah.

There is also the gemstone of Imperial topaz is yellow, pink (rare, if natural) or pink-orange. One particular Imperial topaz variant named Brazilian Imperial Topaz has a bright yellow to deep golden brown hue, sometimes even violet. Imperial topaz that has been expososed to sunlight for long periods of time can fade, so you’ll have to be careful.

If you live in Teas then you’ll want to get the Blue topaz which is the state gemstone.  Blue topaz that is naturally occurring is very rare.  As such colorless topaz is heat treated with blue material and then irradiated to produce the desired blue that people fall in love with.

If you’ve ever seen a rainbow tinted topaz, then you’ve met the Mystic topaz.  This stone has been artificially coated to produce the effect.

Topaz is commonly associated with silicic igneous rocks of the granite and rhyolite type. It typically crystallizes in granitic pegmatites or in vapor cavities in rhyolite lava flows including those at Topaz Mountain in western Utah and Chivinar in South America. It can be found with fluorite and cassiterite in various areas including the Ural and Ilmen mountains of Russia, in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Brazil, Mexico; Flinders Island, Australia; Nigeria and the United States.