Citrine’s color ranges from yellow, to orangey yellow, to yellowish orange, to brownish orange. The name citrine is used for any transparent quartz in that color range – regardless of its saturation. Stones with a faint color and stones with a rich color are all called “citrine”.

The quality of a stone’s color has an enormous impact on its price. Stones with a faint color are abundant and inexpensive. Stones with a rich, uniform color are rare, valuable, and preferred by buyers.

Reddish orange and reddish brown are rare colors in quartz. Gems of these reddish colors are often called Madeira citrine. The name is after wines of similar color made in the Madeira Islands, an autonomous region of Portugal, located in the North Atlantic Ocean about 450 miles southwest of Portugal. You can see several nice examples of Madeira citrine in an article titled “Make Mine Madeira” on the JCK Blog.