Jamunia Prices in Pakistan: How Amethyst Is Really Valued

Amethyst, which most people here call jamunia (you will sometimes hear katela too), is one of the easiest gemstones to live with. It is purple quartz, tough enough to wear every day, available in big clean crystals, and far cheaper than sapphire or ruby. But "affordable" hides a big spread in value. A deep, even purple jamunia with red flashes and a clean face is a different stone altogether from a pale, stripy one of the same weight, and the price ought to reflect that.

Below we explain how amethyst gets valued, why its pricing does not behave like corundum, how to make sense of per-ratti quotes, and how to compare offers fairly. We have kept rupee figures out of the text, because they go out of date and the reasoning does not.

What our listings show

The summary below is drawn from the amethyst stones in our own shop.

Amethyst · October 2026 edition · PKR, from Authentic Gems listings. 1 ratti = 0.91 carat.

Weight	Weights	Stones	Per carat	Per ratti
3 – 6 carat	4.2 – 6.0 ct	6	Rs 1,600 – Rs 2,700	Rs 1,450 – Rs 2,500
6 – 10 carat	6.0 – 9.6 ct	16	Rs 700 – Rs 2,600	Rs 650 – Rs 2,400
Over 10 carat	10.3 – 24.6 ct	15	Rs 1,200 – Rs 2,500	Rs 1,100 – Rs 2,300

Many of our amethysts are fairly large, so the price of a whole stone can look high compared with smaller gems. When you weigh up a small stone against a big one, think per carat, not per stone. For other gems, see our gemstone price guide.

Why amethyst does not price like sapphire

With sapphire and ruby, the rate per carat jumps as stones get bigger, because large clean rough is hard to come by. Amethyst is quartz, and quartz crystals big enough to cut clean stones of 10, 20 or even 50 carats are not unusual. So for amethyst the per-carat rate rises only gently with size. A 12 carat jamunia will normally cost more in total than a 6 carat one of the same quality, but the rate per carat may hardly move.

What that means in practice: colour and clarity do most of the work in amethyst pricing, and size matters mostly because it shows colour better. A bigger stone of rich purple looks deeper than a small one cut from the same crystal, simply because the light travels through more of it.

What decides the price

How deep and clean the purple is

Colour is the main thing. The most prized amethyst is a deep, saturated purple that throws flashes of red or rose as you move it. The trade sometimes calls this "Siberian" no matter where the stone came from. The price falls as the colour gets:

• lighter: pale lilac stones (often sold as "Rose de France") are pretty but cost much less per carat;
• too dark: very dark amethyst can look almost black indoors and loses value;
• brownish or greyish: any muddy secondary tone brings it down compared with a clean purple;
• blue-violet with no red: nice to look at, but usually priced below purple with red flashes.

Colour zoning

Amethyst grows in layers, so a lot of stones show stripes or triangles of stronger and weaker purple. A good cutter orients the stone so the zoning disappears when you look down at it. If you can clearly see bands or a pale corner face-up, that stone should cost well below an evenly coloured one. Ask for a photo of the stone face-up on plain white paper.

Clarity

Because clean amethyst is easy to find, people expect a faceted stone to look clean to the eye. Feathers you can see, fingerprint-like inclusions, cracks and cloudy patches all knock the price down sharply. Included rough usually goes into cabochons, beads or carvings, which sit in a much lower band.

Cut

Good cutting spreads the purple evenly and gives the stone life. Poor cutting leaves dull dark patches or a pale window in the middle. Some of our listings name a particular cut, "laser cut" for example. If you are not sure what that means on a given stone, message us on WhatsApp and we will send a short video. A well-cut stone of slightly lighter colour can easily look better than a badly cut dark one.

Natural, heated or synthetic

Some amethyst is gently heated to lighten very dark material or clear out brown tints. Heat it hard and it turns yellow, which is how much of the citrine on the market is made. Synthetic (lab-grown) amethyst also exists and can look exactly like natural without lab testing. That is one more reason to buy from someone who only sells natural stones and is open about treatment. Our upcoming article on real and fake amethyst goes into glass and synthetics properly.

Origin

Most amethyst on the market comes from Brazil, Uruguay, Zambia and other parts of Africa, with Uruguay and Zambia known for deeper colour. Origin counts for much less here than with sapphire. The colour of the stone in front of you matters far more than the mine it came from.

Faceted stones, cabochons, beads and carvings

One amethyst crystal can end up as quite different products, and each one has its own price band.

• Faceted ring stones: the cleanest, best-coloured material, with the highest per-carat prices.
• Cabochons: smooth domed stones cut from more included rough. Colour still counts, clarity is judged more loosely, and the per-carat price is lower.
• Beads and tasbih: priced mostly by the strand as a whole: bead size, how even the colour is and how well they are drilled. Our gemstone tasbih page explains what to look for.
• Clusters and geodes: display pieces, priced on size and how good they look rather than on carat weight.

When you compare prices, make sure both offers are for the same type of product. A per-carat figure for beads tells you nothing about a faceted stone.

Per carat, per ratti or per stone

Labs weigh amethyst in carats, and a carat is 0.2 grams. Astrology buyers often ask in ratti. The standard gemstone ratti used in Pakistan is 0.91 carat, so an 11 ratti amethyst is 10.01 carats. The jeweller's sunari ratti is smaller, around 0.61 carat. Ask which one is meant, and check the sums with our carat to ratti converter.

To turn a per-carat rate into a per-ratti rate (standard ratti), multiply by 0.91. In practice, plenty of sellers here just quote a price for the whole stone, because the per-carat rate is fairly flat anyway. Either approach is fine as long as you know the exact weight and compare like with like.

Ratti quotes in the bazaar

If a dealer quotes amethyst per ratti, three things decide whether the deal is fair:

1. which ratti they are using, standard or sunari;
2. whether the weight is for the loose stone or the stone already in a ring;
3. whether the rate is for the stone in front of you or a better one they showed you earlier.

Get one final price for one specific stone, with the weight written down. Then compare it per carat against the other offers you have.

Comparing two amethyst offers

1. Same unit: convert both to price per carat.
2. Same light: compare colour in the same conditions, ideally a video under indoor light, because that is where amethyst tends to go dark.
3. Zoning: ask for a face-up photo on white paper.
4. Clarity: make sure both are eye-clean, or neither is.
5. Natural or not: ask whether the stone is natural and whether it has been heated.
6. Returns: check you can send it back if it is not as described.

It also helps to ask each seller for the size in millimetres. Two amethysts of the same weight can look quite different from the top if one is cut deep, and a deep stone often looks darker than a shallower one from the same rough.

A very cheap, very clean, very dark amethyst deserves a second look, because it may be glass or synthetic. A fair price is one that matches the colour and clarity you can actually see.

Browse by budget

Amethyst is a good choice if you are working with a modest budget, and the shop filters show what each band offers across every category:

• entry-level stones
• the lower middle band
• the upper middle band
• the top band

Our post on natural gemstones for a small budget picks out some good-value options. In the amethyst category, try comparing this 10.35 carat jamunia with this 11.30 carat jamunia. Their weights are close, so whatever separates their prices comes down to colour, clarity and cut.

Amethyst in tradition

In Vedic practice, some astrologers use amethyst as an uparatna, a substitute for neelam linked with Saturn, for people who find blue sapphire too expensive or too strong. That advice often comes with a ratti weight, which is why the carat-to-ratti conversion matters to jamunia buyers. Amethyst is also the modern birthstone for February. These are traditions, not promises, and if you are choosing a stone for astrological reasons, do it with an astrologer you trust. Our Capricorn and Aquarius pages show where amethyst fits among Saturn's signs.

Keeping it looking good

Amethyst can fade if it sits in strong sunlight for long stretches, so keep it away from windows and never leave it on a car dashboard, which in a Karachi summer is asking for trouble. At 7 on the Mohs scale it is fine in a ring, but harder stones can scratch it in a jewellery box. Our guide to keeping amethyst purple covers the routine.

Buying jamunia from Authentic Gems

Every amethyst we list is natural, photographed alone and priced individually, and we tell you about any treatment we know of. You are free to have it tested independently; our lab-certified amethyst page explains how testing works. Pay Cash on Delivery once you have opened the parcel and checked the stone in front of the rider. We ship from Karachi, where orders usually arrive in 1 to 2 working days, and reach Lahore, Islamabad and the rest of Pakistan within about 2 to 7. If you are buying amethyst as a birthstone, our February birthstone page explains the tradition.

Browse the stones: amethyst.

The beliefs described here are traditions, shared for interest. They are not promised outcomes, religious rulings or medical advice.