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Turquoise

     Also known as hydrous aluminum phosphate and colored by copper salts, turquoise is found in a variety of rocks, and it is the rock in which it occurs that is responsible for the matrix in a piece. The matrix may show up as black lines, brown patches, quartz crystals or even iron pyrite.
      The color varies from pale green to intense blue and many shades in between. Variations in color as well as the matrix can occur within a single vein of turquoise that’s being mined. This makes it almost impossible to identify the exact source of every piece of turquoise. 
      The cost depends upon the quality of the stone as well as current demand. For example some of the turquoise taken from a mine in New Mexico in 1893 averaged $5.00 per carat. By 1907 it had reached $25.00 a carat, over one hundred times more expensive per ounce than gold was at that time.
     Green turquoise is not necessarily softer than blue turquoise. Pale blue, soft turquoise will turn a dark green over time, but turquoise that starts out green is that way naturally. Body oils and detergents, lotions etc. will cause soft turquoise or softer spots in harder turquoise to turn greenish. Untreated turquoise should never be allowed to come in frequent contact with soaps and oils. 

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