Purple Genuine

How to recognise the difference between a genuine/real SUGILITE & CHAROITE crystal/stone?

I bought a egg shaped purple/voilet stone and I want to know which of this is it,as the both the stones look very similar,Please Advice?

Sugilite and charoite are often difficult to tell apart if you don't have a piece of each one sitting next to each other. Their Mohs Harness are near identical, so scratching isn't much use in the field (and why would you want to take a chance of hurting your stone, anyway?) They have different crystal structures, but unless you want to start trying to snap pieces off for home X-ray diffraction, that probably doesn't help.

One thing to consider is that sugilite is fare more rare than charoite. So that's just a chance-game.

However, while they are both rather rare and purple, they are really nothing alike if you have them side by side. Charoite has a swirling appearance of colors, while sugilite will be an almost single, solid color (ranging from deep purple to bright lilac).

I'm afraid that I can't think of a better way to tell them apart without destroying them. So... I hope it helps!

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