The GIA Laboratory has reported on star quartz many times over the years, discussing the typical colors, cause of asterism, and sources of the material. Because this stone contained oriented needles, which caused the star, the laboratory concluded that the asterism was natural. What was unnatural, however, was the apparent color. When the bottom of the cabochon was viewed with magnification and a combination of overhead and darkfield lighting, a slightly uneven blue coating was clearly visible. In fact, two small chips near the stone’s edge revealed colorless quartz underneath (figure 2).