Garnet’s are often used as symbols of passion and loyalty. They were believed to prevent illness and often warn as a good luck charm. Birthstone for the month of January, Garnet’s are also traditionally given as a second anniversary gift.

Birthstone for February, the Amethyst is traditionally given on the 6th wedding anniversary. Believed to make the beholder calm, and in a lifted state away from stress and anxiety. In medieval times, European soldiers wore amethysts in their armor to shield them from shrapnel.

Mined early in history throughout Egypt, Austria, and Pakistan, the emerald was reputed to enhance clairvoyant powers and was often buried with mummies as a means of preserving spirits. Today, the highest quality emeralds come form Columbian mines.

Birthstone for the month of May, the emerald also commemorates 20th wedding anniversaries. It’s also the zodiac sign of the Taurus and Cancer, symbolizing love, prosperity, and happiness. The emerald was known to be the crown jewel of Cleopatra.

In terms of rarity, the emerald is on par with diamonds. Often used as a vibrant enhancement to fine jewelry pieces, emeralds also make a great center stone for any ring.

The Pearl is the birthstone for the month of June and there are two basic categories:

1) Natural Pearls: Pearls have been prized for their beauty and rarity for more than four thousand years. From ancient China, India, and Egypt, to Imperial Rome, to the Arab world, to Native American tribes, cultures from around the world and throughout recorded history have valued pearls longer than any other gem.
Pearls are the only gemstones grown inside of a living organism. Pearls are formed within oysters or mollusks when a foreign substance (most often a parasite – not a grain of sand) invades the shell of the mollusk and enters the soft mantle tissue. In response to the irritation, the mantle’s epithelial cells form a sac (known as a pearl sac) which secretes a crystalline substance called nacre, the same substance which makes up the interior of a mollusk’s shell, which builds up in layers around the irritant, forming a pearl.

2) Cultured Pearls: In the early part of the 20th century, Japanese researchers discovered a method of producing pearls artificially. Essentially, the method involves inserting a foreign substance, or nucleus, into the tissue of the oyster or mollusk, then returning it to the sea, allowing a cultured pearl to develop naturally. This practice was already quite widespread culturing hemispherical pearls known as mabe pearls. Kokichi Mikimoto is credited with perfecting the technique for artificially stimulating the development of round pearls in akoya mollusks, receiving a patent for this technique in 1916. Although patented in 1916 this technique has since been improved upon and used extensively throughout the pearling world – no longer simply used to cultured akoya pearls, but freshwater, South Sea and Tahitian pearls as well.

Named after ruber, the Latin word for red, the ruby is derived from corundum, which is also known as aluminum oxide. Found in various parts of the US, ruby’s are mainly found in Burma, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, and Kenya.

Birthstone for the month of July, ruby’s are also associated with the summer season, and the astrological sign Capricorn. Usually given as a 40th wedding anniversary gift. Ruby’s are the 2nd hardest gemstone known to man, just behind diamonds.

Found in volcanic lava, the peridot is primarily mined in Kenya, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands. Early miner preferred to mine peridot at night, because they believed the moon increased its visibility. As recently as 1994, a vast amount of precious stone was unearthed in the Himalayan Mountains, including a 300-carat deposit.

In ancient Egypt, peridot was believed to represent the sun. Hawaiian’s claimed they symbolized the tears of revered goddess Pele. The birthstone for the month of August, peridot is the traditional 16th wedding anniversary gift.

Opal’s were originally deposited as a mineral gel, and can be found in a wide variety of rock formations including basalt, limonite, sandstone, and rhyolite. Precious opal deposits can be found in the United States, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, and Ethiopia. Most of the worlds opal comes from Australia.

Birthstone for the month of October, the Opal is believed to bring good luck. The Opal is named from the Latin word opalus, which means “precious stone.”

Tourmaline’s contain an abundance of colorations, and many fine jewelry pieces combine multiple hues of the gemstone together. One of the most popular variants is the watermelon tourmaline, which is green on the outside and pink on the inside.

Found in conjunction with trace amounts of iron, aluminum, magnesium, lithium, sodium, or potassium, the tourmaline is a trigonal crystal which is a naturally occurring mineral. Found in igneous and metamorphic rocks in Brazil, Namibia, Zambia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and the United States. The most common form of tourmaline, referred to as “schorl,” comprises as much as 95 percent of the world’s production of the mineral.

Because it’s only mined in one part of the world, Tanzanite is a highly precious gemstone. Surpassed by only rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. In 2002 it was adopted as a December birthstone.