Identifying gemstones

I got a semi-precious gem kit for Christmas. (early Christmas I know) It came with a book that helps me identify them. The stones look like normal topaz, peridot, garnet, sapphire, aquamarine, amethyst, and the like, but the book only talks about tanzanite, alexandrite, ammolite, zulanite, and zoisite. The purple gems look way to pale and purple to be tanzanite so are the amethyst? Even though the book doesn't mention them? Same with the blue gems, they look like blue topaz and aquamarine, but are they not mentioned in the book. Could they be zoisites? I also have pale green gems that look like peridots, and these bright orange gems that look like orange sapphires. I also have some red gems that look like rubies and garnets but could they be sunstones? I do have alexandrite, zulanite, and topaz. I also have these gems that are rosy pink and really cloudy are they moonstones? Thanks for the help!!!

Wow, that is a great Christmas present. Unfortunately gemstones have quite a range of colors. Garnets, for example are typically red but can be green, orange, purple, brown and even pink. So color will be useful for only a few of them. Peridot is normally some shade of green and can grade into a yellowish green or brown. Amethyst is the purple to violet variety of quartz and can have many shades grading into pink or smokey quartz. Sapphires (corundum) can be red, blue, yellow, clear, green, pink and the most valuable is orange. Well, you get the point, you need another method of identification. If your stones are not cut and polished you could use a hardness set to help distinguish a few of them. Density is also helpful, and, again, if they are rough stones you could look for cleavage planes or fractures. Gemologists study gem identification for at least a year before they are certified and they have access to much more sophisticated equipment than most people. Here is a link to the Gemological Society of America's web site. http://www.gia.edu/

Here is another link that you may find useful:

http://www.all-color-gem-stones.com/iden…

Or you could enroll in a mineralogy class at a local college.

I couldn't really tell you without seeing em, though I think the rosy pink one might be a rose quartz.

the rosy pink ones are rose quartz. the green ones could be emerald.

There are many signs that you can discover for all we know it could be a silicate. In my opinion, professional opinion, I would first guess rose quarts, yes.