 Alexandrite
Colors: Color changes under different lighting from greens to red or purple.
Fast Fact: A regal gem in terms of demand named after Russia’s Czar Alexander II.
Primary Sources: Ural Mountains, Sri Lanka, Burma, Brazil and India.
Birthstone: Month of June
Amethyst
Colors: Violet
Fast Fact: Most highly valued of the quartz group and is said to have strong supernatural powers.
Primary Sources: Zambia, Brazil, Uruguay, Namibia, Congo, Madagascar and Russia.
Birthstone: Month of February
Aquamarine
Colors: Light blue, blue, blue-green
Fast Fact: A member of the beryl family, aquamarine is Latin for “Water of the Sea”.
Primary Sources: Brazil, Sri Lanka, India, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Nigeria and the United States.
 Citrine
Colors: Light golden yellow to reddish yellow.
Fast Fact: Natural colors of citrine are quite rare with a majority of material heat treated to produce desirable colors.
Primary Sources: Brazil and Uruguay
Birthstone: Month of November
 Emerald
Colors: Light to dark green
Fast Fact: Caesar was said to have viewed gladiator battles through an emerald to soothe his eyes.
Primary Sources: Columbia, Brazil, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Russia and India.
Birthstone: Month of May
 Garnet
Colors: Reddish-brown, reddish-violet, pink, green, yellow, and recently indigo.
Fast Fact: Asiatic tribes made bullets from red garnets to cause more lethal injuries.
Primary Sources: Sri Lanka, India, United States, Tanzania, Madagascar, Russia, Canada, Zambia, Malaya, Nigeria and Brazil.
Birthstone: Month of January
 Iolite
Colors: Various blue, and purplish blue hues.
Fast Fact: Viking explorers took advantage of iolite's polarizing qualities to determine the location of the sun on cloudy days when navigating the open sea.
Primary Sources: India and Madagascar.
 Opal
Colors: White, gray or black base with blue, purple, red, orange, yellow and green fire.
Fast Fact: On the average an opal can contain 5 - 10 percent water, but can hold as much as 30 percent water.
Primary Sources: Australia.
Birthstone: Month of October
 Pearl
Colors: Pink, cream, gold, black and white.
Fast Fact: The oldest known pearl jewelry was found in the coffin of a Persian princess who died in 520 BC.
Primary Sources: Japan, China, Tahiti, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, United States and Burma.
Birthstone: Alternate for Month of June
 Peridot
Colors: Yellow-green, olive green and brownish.
Fast Fact: The island of St. John was the only ancient source of peridot until other sources were discovered in the 1900s.
Primary Sources: Pakistan, China, Burma, United States, North Korea, Vietnam
Birthstone: Month of August
 Ruby
Colors: Various shades of red.
Fast Fact: The red variety of corundum is associated with the color of blood; ruby was once believed to remedy hemorrhaging.
Primary Sources: Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.
Birthstone: Month of July
 Sapphire
Colors: Various hues of blue, pink, and yellow.
Fast Fact: In the 12th Century the Bishop of Rennes gave high praise to sapphire and had all ecclesiastical rings set with the gemstone.
Primary Sources: Madagascar, Burma, Sri Lanka, Australia, Cambodia and the United States.
Birthstone: Month of September
 Tanzanite
Colors: Sapphire blue, to amethyst violet and green.
Fast Fact: Thulite was the only variety of zoisite on the market until 1967 when tanzanite was discovered.
Primary Sources: Tanzania.
 Topaz
Colors: Light blue, yellow green, orange, pink, pinkish-red, brown and colorless.
Fast Fact: The Braganza is a famous giant topaz specimen set in the Portuguese Crown
Primary Sources: Nigeria, Brazil, Sri Lanka, India and China.
Birthstone: Month of December
 Tourmaline
Colors: Blue, pink, yellow, green and violet
Fast Fact: No other gemstone in the world has as much color variation as tourmaline.
Primary Sources: Nigeria, Brazil, Pakistan, Madagascar, Namibia and the United States.
Birthstone: Alternate for Month of October
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