January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Garnet
Amethyst
Aquamarine & Jasper
Diamond & Mother of Pearl
Emerald
Smoky Quartz, Moonstone & Cape Amethyst
Ruby & Black Onyx
Peridot & Carnelian
Sapphire
Opal & Rose Quartz
Citrine & Topaz
Blue Topaz & Turquoise
Garnet
Amethyst
Aquamarine
Diamond
Emerald
Pearl, Moonstone,
Alexandrite
Ruby
Peridot
Sapphire
Opal, Tourmaline
Topaz, Citrine
Turquoise, Zircon
Garnet comes from the Latin word for pomegranate - its crystals resemble the fruit's color and seeds - but garnet comes in many colors, and can even be colorless. Commonly found as small pebbles in streams.
A gem of quartz, the second most abundant mineral. Color ranges from wine-purple to pale lilac. The deep shades are most valuable. Lightens with long exposure to sun. Found in alluvial deposits or geodes.
Aquamarine crystals can grow as large as 200 pounds. Gem's blue is from iron. Brazil as the best deposits. Bloodstone, aka heliotrope or blood jasper, is opaque quartz flecked red from iron.
Hardest natural substance on earth, can be polished only by another diamond. Color clear to sooty black, most are yellowish; rarest are red, green, purple, blue. First cut to improve optical in the 16th century.
Can be fragile, due to fissures and fractures. Transparent gems extremely rare, often costlier than diamonds. French refer to gem inclusions as "jardin" they resemble foliage. Good sources: Columbia, Zambia.
A pearl is organic: Mollusk coats foreign irritant with calcium carbonate. Varies widely in color and shape. Moonstones vary from semitransparent to opaque. Alexandrine (rare) is known for chameleon like changes.
Large, high-quality rubies are extremely rare; can command higher prices than diamonds. Second only to diamond in hardness. Most are from Southeast Asia; finest are from Myanmar, former Burma.
Peridot has on oily luster. Greener under artificial light, so also called "evening emerald". Important course, Can Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona. Onyx, an opaque quartz, is often used for cameos, intaglios.
Gem o corundum; colors include all but red (red corundum is ruby). Fine blue-green sources are Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Kashmir. Star sapphires' needlelike inclusions are best seen in cabochon cut.
Silica and water, opal is fragile. Play of color comes from structure described as "layers of Ping-Pong" balls. Tourmaline has many colors, can even be multicolored, as it's pink-green "watermelon" tourmaline.
Colorless pure topaz can be mistaken for diamond. Trace minerals create gems in colors from blue and green to pink, sherry, even black. Affordable citrine, from Latin for citrus, is top-selling yellow-orange gem.
Turquoise, one of the first mined gems, lies in arid and semiarid lands. Color ranges from blue to green; rarest sky blue from Iran. Fiery zircon is unfairly tagged "imitation" diamond; colors are wide-ranging.
