Before the name “goldstone” was used, the material was widely known as “aventurine glass.” That name is the source of three words that are commonly seen in gemology.

• “Aventurescence” is the name of a phenomena that is produced when a material has light-reflecting particles that produce a sparkly or glittery luster.
• “Aventurescent” is an adjective used for materials that exhibit the phenomena of aventurescence. Examples are aventurescent quartz, aventurescent feldspar and aventurescent iolite.
• “Aventurine” is a noun used for a variety of green quartz that contains tiny highly reflective flakes of a green chromium-rich mica known as fuchsite. The reflective flakes of fuchsite produce the aventurescent luster and impart a green color to the material.

Aventurine: A cabochon cut from a piece of quartz that contains an enormous number of tiny fuchsite inclusions. Fuchsite is a green chromium-rich mica that gives the quartz its green color. The inclusions share a common orientation, and when the light strikes the cabochon at the proper angle, they simultaneously reflect a flash of light to the observer. The reflectance is known as aventurescence, and the material was named “aventurine.”