Red Agate
Chalcedony & Agate Family
Red agate is a color description for agate, not a separate mineral species. It is translucent to opaque chalcedony built in contrasting bands, with iron-bearing minerals commonly supplying red, rust, and reddish-brown tones between white or gray layers.
Identity
- Material or variety
- Agate
- Scientific or material identity
- Agate (banded chalcedony)
- Classification
- Natural mineral or mineral variety
- Composition or formula
- SiO₂
- Crystal system or structure
- Aggregate or composite structure
- Geological or manufacturing origin
- Forms from silica- or mineral-rich fluids in cavities and fractures.
- Mohs hardness
- 6.5 to 7
- Specific gravity
- 2.58 to 2.64
Origins
Argentina · Brazil · Germany · Malawi · Mexico · USA
Appearance & optical properties
deep red chalcedony with white concentric bands.
History & discovery
Agate takes its name from the Achates River of ancient Sicily, now usually identified with the Dirillo. People have used banded agate for seals, beads, vessels, and carved ornaments since antiquity; red-banded material belongs to that long lapidary tradition.
Uses & care
- Common uses
- Red agate is fashioned into cabochons, beads, cameos, small carvings, spheres, and polished slices that emphasize its concentric or parallel bands.
- Handling and cleaning
- Clean with warm soapy water and a soft brush. Agate is hard enough for regular wear, but protect it from hard impacts, abrasive cleaners, steam, ultrasonic cleaning, and sudden changes of temperature.
Jewellery
7 pieces of Red Agate jewellery. Learners earn each one in DigMyGem by learning words; until then it shows as a silhouette.
Cup of the Ptolemies
Jewel
A sardonyx drinking cup carved in Alexandria and later fitted with gold mounts to serve as a royal chalice.
Carnelian Seal Ring
Ring
A deep red agate seal ring, its flat face ready to press a mark into warm wax.
Scarlet Band Necklace
Necklace
A necklace of red agate beads whose white bands flash like brushstrokes.
Holy Chalice
Jewel
The Holy Chalice of Valencia Cathedral is a dark red agate cup mounted on a chalcedony base, venerated since medieval times as the cup Christ used at the Last Supper.
Photo: Vitold Muratov, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
Seal of Muhammad
Jewel
A small rectangular slab of red agate inscribed 'Muhammad is the Messenger of God', kept in the Topkapi Palace among the sacred relics and traditionally used to seal letters.
Ur Carnelian Necklace
Necklace
A string of carnelian beads with small gold beads between them, from tomb PG 55 in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, about 2600 to 2300 BC, now in the British Museum. Etched carnelian beads from the Indus Valley were found in the same royal tombs.
Scarlet Intaglio Bracelet
Bracelet
An imagined bracelet of oval carnelian intaglios carved with classical heads, linked in gold like a row of seals.
