Birthstone List

A birthstone is a gemstone that represents a person's month of birth.

Month	Gemstone
January	garnet
February	amethyst
March	aquamarine
April	diamond
May	emerald
June	pearl
July	ruby
August	peridot
September	sapphire
October	tourmaline
November	topaz, citrine
December	turquoise, zircon, tanzanite

Jan Birthstone Garnet

Garnet is the birthstone of January.

Garnet species are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black and colorless, with reddish shades most common.

Garnet is considered a lucky stone for love and success.

New York has garnet as its state gemstone, Connecticut has almandine garnet as its state gemstone, Idaho has star garnet as its state gemstone, and Vermont has grossular garnet as its state gemstone.

 

 

Feb Birthstone Amethyst

Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz, the birthstone of February.

Amethyst was used as a gemstone by the ancient Egyptians and was largely employed in antiquity for intaglio engraved gems. The Greeks believed amethyst gems could prevent intoxication, while medieval European soldiers wore amethyst amulets as protection in battle in the belief that amethysts can heal people and keep them cool-headed.

Tibetans consider amethyst sacred to the Buddha and make prayer beads from it. In the Middle Ages, it was considered a symbol of royalty and used to decorate English regalia. In the old world, amethyst was considered one of the Cardinal gems, in that it was one of the five gemstones considered precious above all others, until large deposits were found in Brazil.

 

 

March Birthstone Aquamarine

Aquamarine (from Latin: aqua marina, “sea water”,) is a blue or cyan variety of beryl. It occurs at most localities which yield ordinary beryl.

The ancient Romans believed that aquamarine would protect against any dangers while travelling at sea, and that it provided energy and cured laziness.

March’s birthstone was also thought to enhance the happiness of marriages. The best gems combine high clarity with limpid transparency and blue to slightly greenish blue hues.

Aquamarine is the birthstone for March and the gem of the 19th wedding anniversary.

 

 

 

April Birthstone Diamond

Diamonds are among nature’s most precious and beautiful creations.

This hardest gem of all is made of just one element: carbon. Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic.

Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are utilized in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools.

It’s valued for its colorless nature and purity. Most diamonds are primeval—over a billion years old—and form deep within the earth.

Most natural diamonds have ages between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years. Most were formed at depths between 150 and 250 kilometres (93 and 155 mi) in the Earth's mantle, although a few have come from as deep as 800 kilometres (500 mi). Under high pressure and temperature, carbon-containing fluids dissolved minerals and replaced them with diamonds. Much more recently (tens to hundreds of million years ago), they were carried to the surface in volcanic eruptions and deposited in igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites.

Synthetic diamonds can be grown from high-purity carbon under high pressures and temperatures or from hydrocarbon gas by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Imitation diamonds can also be made out of materials such as cubic zirconia and silicon carbide. Natural, synthetic and imitation diamonds are most commonly distinguished using optical techniques or thermal conductivity measurements.

Currently two diamond anniversaries are celebrated – one at 60 and one at 75 years. The 75th anniversary is the original diamond anniversary and the 60th was added when Queen Victoria (English Empire Monarch) celebrated her Diamond Jubilee on her 60th anniversary of accession to the throne in 1897.

 

 

May Birthstone Emerald

Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.

Emeralds, like all colored gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four Cs of connoisseurship: color, clarity, cut and carat weight. Normally, in the grading of colored gemstones, color is by far the most important criterion. However, in the grading of emeralds, clarity is considered a close second. A fine emerald must possess not only a pure verdant green hue as described below, but also a high degree of transparency to be considered a top gem.

In the 1960s, the American jewelry industry changed the definition of emerald to include the green vanadium-bearing beryl. As a result, vanadium emeralds purchased as emeralds in the United States are not recognized as such in the UK and Europe. In America, the distinction between traditional emeralds and the new vanadium kind is often reflected in the use of terms such as "Colombian emerald".

Emerald is regarded as the traditional birthstone for May and for 55th Anniversary. Emeralds have two meanings, the first being a symbol of true love. As green is also linked with creativity and spring, emeralds are also thought to offer the wearer new chances.

 

 

June Birthstone Pearl

Pearls are formed when the mollusk secretes thousands of very thin concentric layers of nacre, a secretion of calcium carbonate (aragonite and conchyolin) in a matrix that eventually coats an irritant, either man made or natural. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearl can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.

With the meaning of purity, wisdom and innocence, a pearl is a beautiful 30th anniversary present.

 

 

July Birthstone Ruby

A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide).

Ruby is one of the traditional cardinal gems, together with amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond. The word ruby comes from ruber, Latin for red. The color of a ruby is due to the element chromium.

The quality of a ruby is determined by its color, cut, and clarity, which, along with carat weight, affect its value. The brightest and most valuable shade of red called blood-red or pigeon blood, commands a large premium over other rubies of similar quality. After color follows clarity: similar to diamonds, a clear stone will command a premium, but a ruby without any needle-like rutile inclusions may indicate that the stone has been treated. Ruby is the traditional birthstone for July and is usually pinker than garnet, although some rhodolite garnets have a similar pinkish hue to most rubies. The world's most valuable ruby is the Sunrise Ruby.

Rubies have a hardness of 9.0 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Among the natural gems only moissanite and diamond are harder, with diamond having a Mohs hardness of 10.0 and moissanite falling somewhere in between corundum (ruby) and diamond in hardness.

For thousands of years, Ruby was considered the stone of love, energy, passion, power, and a zest for life. 

Because rubies are thought to possess an eternal inner flame which is a symbol that the passion in a marriage is still very alive and strong after 40 years together, rubies are the traditional 40th anniversary gift.   

 

August Birthstone Peridot

Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one color: an olive-green. The intensity and tint of the green, however, depends on the percentage of iron in the crystal structure, so the color of individual peridot gems can vary from yellow, to olive, to brownish-green. Peridot is sometimes mistaken for emeralds and other green gems.

The ancient Egyptians mined peridot on the Red Sea island of Zabargad, the source for many large fine peridots in the world’s museums. The Egyptians called it the “gem of the sun.”

Peridot is the birthstone for August and the 15th anniversary gemstone.

 

Sep Birthstone Sapphire

Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminum oxide with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, copper, or magnesium. It is typically blue, but natural "fancy" sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, and green colors. The name “sapphire” can also apply to any corundum that’s not ruby, another corundum variety.

Gemstone color can be described in terms of hue, saturation, and tone. Hue is commonly understood as the "color" of the gemstone. Saturation refers to the vividness or brightness of the hue, and tone is the lightness to darkness of the hue. Blue sapphire exists in various mixtures of its primary (blue) and secondary hues, various tonal levels (shades) and at various levels of saturation (vividness).

Sapphire is one of the two gem-varieties of corundum, the other being ruby (defined as corundum in a shade of red). Although blue is the best-known sapphire color, they occur in other colors, including gray and black, and they can be colorless. A pinkish orange variety of sapphire is called padparadscha.

Pink sapphires occur in shades from light to dark pink, and deepen in color as the quantity of chromium increases. The deeper the pink color, the higher their monetary value. In the United States, a minimum color saturation must be met to be called a ruby, otherwise the stone is referred to as a pink sapphire.

Because of the remarkable hardness of sapphires – 9 on the Mohs scale (the third hardest mineral, after diamond at 10 and moissanite at 9.5) – sapphires are also used in some non-ornamental applications.

A star sapphire is a type of sapphire that exhibits a star-like phenomenon known as asterism.

A rare variety of natural sapphire, known as color-change sapphire, exhibits different colors in different light. Color change sapphires are blue in outdoor light and purple under incandescent indoor light, or green to gray-green in daylight and pink to reddish-violet in incandescent light.

Sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the 45th anniversary.

 

 

Oct Birthstone Tourmaline

Tourmaline is a crystalline boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium.

Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gemstone comes in a wide variety of colors. Tourmaline is the most colorful of all gemstones. Usually, iron-rich tourmalines are black to bluish-black to deep brown, while magnesium-rich varieties are brown to yellow, and lithium-rich tourmalines are almost any color: blue, green, red, yellow, pink, etc. Rarely, it is colorless. Bi-colored and multicolored crystals are common, reflecting variations of fluid chemistry during crystallization.

 

 

 

Nov Birthstone Topaz

Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces. It is one of the hardest naturally occurring minerals (Mohs hardness of 8) and is the hardest of any silicate mineral. This hardness combined with its usual transparency and variety of colors means that it has acquired wide use in jewellery as a cut gemstone as well as for intaglios and other gemstone carvings.

Topaz in its natural state is a golden brown to yellow, a characteristic which means it is sometimes confused with the less valuable gemstone citrine.

Orange topaz, also known as precious topaz, is the traditional November birthstone, the symbol of friendship, and the state gemstone of the US state of Utah.

Imperial topaz is yellow, pink (rare, if natural) or pink-orange. Brazilian imperial topaz can often have a bright yellow to deep golden brown hue, sometimes even violet. Many brown or pale topazes are treated to make them bright yellow, gold, pink or violet colored.

Blue topaz is the state gemstone of the US state of Texas. Naturally occurring blue topaz is quite rare. Typically, colorless, gray or pale yellow and blue material is heat treated and irradiated to produce a more desired darker blue

Although very hard, topaz must be treated with greater care than some other minerals of similar hardness (such as corundum) because of a weakness of atomic bonding of the stone's molecules along one or another axial plane (whereas diamonds, for example, are composed of carbon atoms bonded to each other with equal strength along all of its planes). This gives topaz a tendency to fracture along such a cleavage plane if struck with sufficient force

Topaz has a relatively low index of refraction for a gemstone, and so stones with large facets or tables do not sparkle as readily as stones cut from minerals with higher refractive indices, though quality colorless topaz sparkles and shows more "life" than similarly cut quartz. When given a typical "brilliant" cut, topaz may either show a sparkling table facet surrounded by dead-looking crown facets or a ring of sparkling crown facets with a dull well-like table.

 

 

Dec Birthstone

Turquoise

Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue.

The finest of turquoise reaches a maximum Mohs hardness of just under 6, or slightly more than window glass. Characteristically a cryptocrystalline mineral, turquoise almost never forms single crystals, and all of its properties are highly variable.

In many cultures of the Old and New Worlds, this gemstone has been esteemed for thousands of years as a holy stone, a bringer of good fortune or a talisman.

 

Zircon 

Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates. Its chemical name is zirconium silicate.

The natural color of zircon varies between colorless, yellow-golden, red, brown, blue and green. Colorless specimens that show gem quality are a popular substitute for diamond and are also known as "Matura diamond". Zircon occurs in many colors, including reddish brown, yellow, green, blue, gray and colorless. The color of zircons can sometimes be changed by heat treatment. Common brown zircons can be transformed into colorless and blue zircons by heating to 800 to 1000 °C.

Red and green zircons have market value as collectors’ stones, and cat’s-eye zircons occasionally come on the market as curios. Collectors love zircon’s variety of colours, consumers seem most enamored with just one - blue. Dealers report that at least 80 percent of zircons sold are blue.

Zircon became a December birthstone because it comes in blues similar to turquoise, the other birthstone for that month. Like January’s garnets and September’s sapphires, the variety of colours available in zircon gives people with December birthdays a lot of choice! 

Zircon is a colorful gem with high refraction and fire that’s unfairly confused with cubic zirconia. Zircon is made of zirconium silicate, whereas cubic zirconia is made of zirconium oxide. Both are hard to differentiate from each other and are confused as being the same.

A lab created cubic zirconia is man-made. Zircon is a natural gemstone.

Natural zircon is rare and more expensive than cubic zirconia. The affordable cost of cubic zirconia makes it the most popular diamond substitute.

In terms of hardness, cubic zirconia ranks 8.5 and zircon ranks 7.5 on the Mohs scale.

 

^Tanzanite 

Tanzanite is the blue and violet variety of the mineral zoisite (a calcium aluminium hydroxyl sorosilicate), caused by small amounts of vanadium, belonging to the epidote group. Tanzanite is only found in Tanzania, in a very small mining area (approximately 7 km (4.3 mi) long and 2 km (1.2 mi) wide) near the Mirerani Hills.

Tanzanite is noted for its remarkably strong trichroism, appearing alternately blue, violet and burgundy depending on crystal orientation.

In 2002, the American Gem Trade Association chose tanzanite as a December birthstone

 

 

^{Wedding Anniversary Gemstone List}

There is no single authoritative wedding anniversary gemstone list. However, based on similar lists that we’ve found, we’ve made some selections for wedding anniversary gems to help you find that perfect jewelry gift for your loved one.

 

Year	Gemstone
1st	Gold
2nd	Garnet
3rd	Pearls
4th	Blue Topaz
5th	Sapphire
6th	Amethyst
7th	Onyx
8th	Tourmaline
9th	Lapis Lazuli
10th	Diamond
11th	Turquoise
12th	Jade
13th	Citrine
14th	Opal
15th	Ruby
16th	Peridot
17th	Watches
18th	Cat's Eyes
19th	Aquamarine
20th	Emerald
25th	Silver
30th	Pearls
35th	Emerald
40th	Ruby
45th	Sapphire
50th	Gold
55th	Emerald
60th	Diamond
65th	Sapphire
70th	Platinum
75th	Sapphire
80th	Ruby