Purple sapphires are sometimes confused with amethysts; a variety of quartz. The abundantly common quartz registers a 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness, compared to the Sapphire’s 9, and can be easily broken, chipped, or shattered. Not only more rare, but sapphires are more durable than amethysts to the daily knocks of life, the only material harder is diamond. In terms of brilliance and sparkle, once again the sapphire comes well ahead, if you put an amethyst and a sapphire next to one another you’ll see that a sapphire has much more sparkle and clarity.
