Apatite is a calciumphosphate, and a very rare variety of tourmaline, which was discovered in the 1990’s. The name apatite comes from the word deceiver in Greek, because it is very easily mistaken for other stones, like tourmaline and beryl. With a hardness on the Moh's scale of only 5, it is rarely faceted as a gemstone, except for collectors. When cut correctly, stones are bright with strong colors. Apatite occurs in what has been described as neon colors, colors never seen before in jewelry. Because of these shockingly bright colors, the stone became popular overnight. Apatite can appear inconspicuous or display the most beautiful colors. It occurs in various shades of yellow, green, gray, blue, white, purple, pink, brown, red-brown, violet and colorless, as well as in cat's eye form. It has become popular because some of the striking blue and green colors resemble those of the highly prized Paraiba tourmaline. Yellow apatite is a more common color and costs a lot less than blue to green transparent varieties.