Zircon

In the middle ages, zircon was said to aid sleep, bring prosperity, and promote honor and wisdom in its owner. The name probably comes from the Persian word zargun which means "gold-colored."

The fiery, brilliance of zircon can rival any gemstone. The affordability of its vibrant greens, sky blues, and pleasing earth tones contributes to its growing popularity today.

Zircon is mined in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries. Because it can be colorless, green, blue, yellow, brown, orange, dark red, and all the colors in between, it is a popular gem for connoisseurs who collect different colors or zircon from different localities.

Turquoise

Turquoise is among the oldest known gemstones- it has been mined since 3,200 BC. It graced the necks of Egyptian Pharaohs and adorned the ceremonial dress of early Native Americans. This robin egg blue hued gemstone has been attributed with healing powers, promoting the wearer's status and wealth, protection from evil and brings good luck.

Turquoise is an opaque, light to dark blue or blue-green gem. The finest color is an intense blue. Turquoise may contain narrow veins of other materials either isolated or as a network. They are usually black, brown, or yellowish-brown in color. Known as the matrix, these veins of color are sometimes in the form of an intricate pattern, called a spider web.

Tourmaline

For centuries tourmalines have adorned the jewels of royalty. The Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi, the last empress of China, valued the rich pink colors above all other gemstones. The people of ancient Ceylon called tourmaline "turmali," the Sinhalese word for "more colors." Perhaps this is why ancient mystics believed tourmaline could encourage artistic intuition: it has the palette to express every mood.

Vivid reds, hot pinks, verdant greens and blues abound in this marvelous gem variety. Earth tones as varied as a prairie sunset are readily available. Not only does tourmaline occur in a spectacular range of colors, but it also combines those colors in a single gemstone called "bi-color" or "parti-color" tourmaline. One color combination with a pink center and a green outer rim is called "watermelon" tourmaline, and is cut in thin slices similar to its namesake.

Topaz

The Egyptians said that topaz was colored with the golden glow of the sun god. Legend has it that topaz dispels all enchantment and helps to improve eyesight. The ancient Greeks believed that it had the power to increase strength and make its wearer invisible in times of emergency. Early discoveries from Brazil in rich reddish cognac colors to vivid pinks, were used to grace the jewelry of the 18th and 19th Century Russian Czarinas, hence earning the moniker of "Imperial Topaz."

Topaz sometimes has the amber gold of fine cognac or the blush of a peach, and all the beautiful warm browns and oranges in between. Some rare and exceptional examples are pale pink to a sherry red.

Topaz is found in Brazil, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Africa and China. The birthstone for November, topaz is a talisman for the sign of Sagittarius and is the suggested gift for the 23rd anniversary.

Tanzanite

Tanzanite is an exotic, vivid blue, kissed by purple hues. Legend has it that tanzanite was first discovered when some brown gemstone crystals lying on the dry earth were caught in a fire set by lightning that swept through the grass-covered hills. The Masai herders driving cattle in the area noticed the beautiful blue color and picked the crystals up, becoming the first tanzanite collectors.

Tanzanite has the beauty, rarity and durability to rival any gemstone. It is the ultimate prize of a gemstone safari. Tanzanite is mined only in Tanzania at the feet of the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro.

One of the most popular blue gemstones available today, tanzanite occurs in a variety of shapes and sizes and also provides a striking assortment of tonal qualities. Rarely pure blue, tanzanite almost always display its signature overtones of purple. In smaller sizes, tanzanite tends toward the lighter tones and the lavender color is more common. While in larger sizes, tanzanite typically displays deeper, richer color.

Sunstone

One of the first recorded references to sunstone dates back to the early 1500's. Pope Clement VII was said to have worn a stone that had a golden spot, which moved in relation to the heavens. Sunstone generally ranges in color from pale yellow to orange to reddish-orange. Tiny platelets of metallic mineral inside the gemstone often give off a glittery effect as light moves across the stone.

Sunstone is the state stone of Oregon where many of the finest specimens are mined. They are a member of the feldspar group of mineral, specifically the plagioclase group. They are also found in Mexico, China, Namibia and Madagascar.

Lesser quality sunstones are often shaped in cabochons or made into beads. The finer qualities, especially those from Oregon, will lend themselves to faceting. In jewelry this stone is versatile and durable enough to be set in rings, earrings and pendants.

Spinel

Centuries ago, in Sanskrit writings, spinel was called the daughter of ruby, adored, yet somehow different. The Crown Jewels of Great Britain are graced with spinels and have resided in the regalia of kingdoms throughout history.

Found in Myanmar (Burma) and Sri Lanka, spinel comes in a variety of colors including oranges, pinks, blues, lavenders, mauves and vivid reds. While common in sizes up to 2 carats, larger gemstones can also be acquired.

Spinel is thought to protect the owner from harm, to reconcile differences, and to soothe away sadness. However, the strongest reasons for buying a spinel are its rich, brilliant array of colors and its surprising affordability.

Sapphire

Velvety blue. Liquid blue. Evening-sky blue. Cornflower blue. Sapphire, beloved for centuries as the ultimate blue gemstone. The ancient Persian rulers believed that the earth rested on a giant sapphire and its reflection colored the heavens blue. Indeed, the very name in Latin, "Sapphiru," means blue.

But like the endless colors that appear in the sky, sapphire is also found in many, many other shades besides blue, from the gold of a sunrise, to the fiery reddish-orange of sunset, to the delicate violet of twilight. Sapphire may even resemble the pale white gloaming of an overcast day. These diverse colors are referred to as "fancy" color sapphires.

A gift of a sapphire symbolizes a pledge of trust and loyalty. It is from this tradition that sapphire has long been a popular choice for engagement rings.

Ruby

Celebrated in the Bible and in ancient Sanskrit writings as the most precious of all gemstones, rubies have been the prized possession of emperors and kings throughout the ages. Ruby's inner fire has been the inspiration for innumerable legends and myths, and to this day, no red gemstone can compare to its fiery, rich hues. It was believed wearing a fine red ruby bestowed good fortune on its owner - although the owner must have already had good fortune enough to possess such a rare and beautiful gemstone!

Many people associate its brilliant crimson colors with passion and love, making ruby an ideal choice for an engagement ring. Ruby is the red variety of the corundum mineral species, while all other colors of corundum are called sapphire.

Phenomenal

Exciting! Alluring! Imagine the sense of awe the ancients must have felt when they first gazed at phenomenal gemstones. Imagine the thoughts that must have coursed through their minds! Now, open your mind to that same sense of wonder as you experience a gemstone that transcends the mystery of color, to the magic of phenomenal

Certain, special gemstones have the unique ability to display a majestic star pattern, the intriguing feline like cat's-eye, the almost hypnotic billowing sheen of moonstone, and the playful iridescent patterns of contrasting color seen in fire agates and ammolites.

The star effect, known as asterism, appears as rays of a star across the domed surface of the gemstone and is most often seen in ruby, sapphire, quartz, garnet and spinel. It is produced when a strong source of light reflects off of the multitude of geometrically arranged layers of threadlike inclusions that inhabit these unique gems.

Peridot

Peridot is treasured in Hawaii as the goddess Pele's tears. The island of Oahu even has beaches made out of tiny grains of peridot. Although Hawaii’s volcanoes have produced some peridot large enough to be cut into gemstones, virtually all peridot sold in Hawaii today is from Arizona, another state with extreme geology.

The fresh lime green of peridot is its distinctive signature. Its spring green color also is ideal with sky blue.

Today most peridot is mined, often by hand, by Native Americans on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. Peridot found here is beautiful in color but relatively small in size. Faceted peridot from Arizona is rare in sizes above five carats. Fine large peridot are found in Burma and large quantities of peridot are also mined in China. In 1994, an exciting new deposit of fine peridot was discovered in Pakistan, 15,000 feet above sea level in the far west of the Himalaya Mountains in the Pakistanian part of Kashmir.

Pearls

Pearls are unique in the world of colored gemstones since they are the only gemstone formed within a living creature. Because natural pearls are so rare and difficult to recover from the ocean's depths, man invented the technique of culturing salt and freshwater pearls from mollusks carefully seeded with irritants similar to those produced by nature. The painstaking effort of culturing is one of the most dramatic examples of man's quest to coax beauty from nature.

Cultured pearls come in many beautiful colors including: gold, yellow, champagne, pink, peach, lavender, gray and black. Cultured pearls come in many shapes and sizes, and can be acquired in both graduated and uniform strands. They can be purchased singly or in pairs for rings, pendants and earrings. June birthdays and third and thirtieth anniversaries are celebrated with the gift of pearls.

Opal

Revered as a symbol of hope, fidelity, and purity, opal was dubbed the Queen of Gems by the ancient Romans because it encompassed the colors of all other gems. Opal is prized for its unique play of color, the ability to diffract light into flashes of rainbow color.

Opal occurs in different colors, ranging from semi-transparent to opaque. The most common is white opal. Crystal or water opal has a colorless body. The most valued variety, black opal, has a dark blue, gray, or black body color. Boulder opal combines precious opal with the ironstone in which it forms. Bright yellow, orange, or red fire opal are quite different from the other varieties of opal. Their day-glo tones, which are translucent to transparent, are beautiful with or without play of color. Opal, along with tourmaline, is the birthstone for October and the suggested gift for the fourteenth anniversary.

Onyx

The name comes from the Greek word onux , which means fingernail. According to Roman Mythology, Cupid cut the divine fingernails of Venus with an arrowhead while she was sleeping. The fates turned the clippings into stone so that no part of the goddess would ever perish. Black isn't normally the color one associates with fingernails, but in Greek times, almost all colors of chalcedony from fingernail white to dark brown and black were called onyx. Later, the Romans narrowed the term to refer to black and dark brown colors only.

Even in Roman times, the black color of onyx was usually enhanced by man. More than 2000 years ago, Roman historian Pliny described a traditional technique for darkening onyx that is still in use today. The onyx is soaked in sugar water, then placed in strong acid. After boiling for two hours, the acid eats away the sugar and water, leaving pure black carbon. Today cobalt dye is also used.

Morganite

Morganite was first discovered in California in the early twentieth century. A rich gem find of tourmaline, kunzite, and other gems outside San Diego started a gem rush in the region. Morganite was an exciting new discovery, one that drew the attention of the world's most important gem buyer: George Kunz of Tiffany & Co. He decided to name it in honor of his biggest customer: millionaire bank tycoon J.P. Morgan, who was an avid gem collector.

Although its color is pastel, it has a lushness rare in pink gemstones.

There are deposits of this gemstone in Brazil, Mozambique, Namibia, Afghanistan, and Russia.

Moonstone

The ancient Romans theorized that moonstone, with its unearthly shimmer, was formed from frozen moonlight. This appealing gem variety does shine with a cool lunar light but it is the mineral feldspar, quite terrestrial in origin. The shimmer, which is called schiller or adularescence, is caused by the intergrowth of two different types of feldspar, with different refractive indexes.

Moonstones come in a variety of colors. The body color can range from colorless to gray, brown, yellow, green, or pink. The clarity ranges from transparent to translucent. The best moonstone has a blue sheen, perfect clarity, and a colorless body color. Another related feldspar variety is known as rainbow moonstone. In this variety, the sheen is a variety of rainbow hues, from pink to yellow, to peach, purple, and blue.

Fine moonstone is quite rare and becoming rarer. It is mined in Sri Lanka and Southern India. The rainbow variety can be found in India and Madagascar.

Lapis Lazuli

The beautiful blues in paintings from the Renaissance are thanks to the blue of lapis lazuli, the opaque blue gem material that was the secret ingredient in ultramarine, the valuable pigment that all the old masters used to capture the rich blues of the sea and sky and the robes of the Virgin Mary. The color wasn't duplicated by any other substance until 1834 but even now, some argue there is no substitute: unlike other pigments ultramarine centuries old still glows with rich color today.

As befits a gem that has been international currency for millennia, the name lapis lazuli is mélange of languages. From the Latin, lapis means stone. From the Arabic, azul means blue.

Lapis lazuli is still mined at the deposits of the ancient world in Afghanistan. Today lapis lazuli is also mined in Chile. Small quantities are also produced in Siberia, in Colorado in the United States, and in Myanmar.

Kunzite

Surprisingly Kunzite was discovered in the United States, early in the twentieth century. Even its name has American roots: this pink gem variety of the mineral spodumene is named in tribute to George Kunz, the legendary gem scholar, gemologist, and gem buyer for Tiffany & Co at the turn of the century. The author of The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, Kunz searched the globe for old stories and legends about gems as he searched for new varieties and new deposits.

Kunzite was first found in Connecticut, USA. But the first commercially significant deposit was discovered in 1902 in the Pala region of California, where morganite beryl was also first discovered. The name was a brilliant marketing move: the miners named the gem after its most likely customer, Kunz.  Morganite was named for the customer’s customer: J.P. Morgan.

Jade

Since at least 2950 BC, jade has been treasured in China as the royal gemstone. Jade is a bridge between the spiritual and the material world. Jade was thought to preserve the body after death and can be found in emperors' tombs from thousands of years ago. One tomb contained an entire suit made out of jade, to assure the physical immortality of its owner. In Central America, the Olmecs, the Mayans and the Toltecs also treasured jade and used it for carvings and masks. The Aztecs instituted a tax in jade, which unfortunately led to the recycling of many earlier artworks.

Jade is usually cut into smooth dome shapes called cabochons. Jadeite bangles are also very popular in Asian countries. Beads are also very beautiful and some important jadeite necklaces made during the art deco period have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. Most treasured for its vivid greens, jade also comes in lavender, pink, yellow, and white.

Iolite

Seafaring Vikings used iolite to filter the haze and glare from their eyes. The power over the sun aided these fearless warriors in navigating the vast oceans upon which they sailed. The name is from the Greek "los", meaning violet.

Iololite is , mined in India, Sri Lanka, Africa and Brazil, can be obtained in sizes up to 4 to 5 carats reasonably easily, although much larger gems have been found. It is commonly cut into traditional shapes, and its most desirable color is a rich
violet-blue.

While it is not as well known as its blue counterparts sapphire and tanzanite, this pleasing blue gemstone is gaining widespread popularity for its beauty and its attractive affordability.

Garnet

Garnet traces its roots to the Nile Delta in 3100 B.C., where Egyptian artisans would craft the gemstone into beads or inlay them into hand-wrought jewelry. Noah used garnet as a lamp on his bow as he cast about on the ocean. Garnet received its name from the ancient Greeks because the color reminded them of the "granatum," or pomegranate seed.

The versatile garnet comes in a virtual rainbow of colors, from the deep red Bohemian Garnet to the vibrant greens of the Russian demantoid and African tsavorite. The oranges and browns of spessartite and hessonite hail from Namibia and Sri Lanka and the subtle pinks and purples of the rhododendron flower, are also yours to explore.

Garnet is the traditional birthstone for the month of January, however, red need not be your color of choice if you are born in this month. Rich orange and golden hues, striking greens, petal soft colors of violet and lavender, all await your selection.

Emerald

The ancient Egyptians mined emeralds nearly 4,000 years ago, and Cleopatra was an avid collector. South America's rich bounty of emeralds was discovered by 16th Century Spanish explorers who found large emeralds in the possession of the Aztecs and Incas. Believed by the ancients to empower the owner with foresight into the future, emerald is regarded as an amulet for good fortune.

Emerald, to many, symbolizes rebirth and the abundance of the life force. The rich green hue brings to mind the regeneration of life in spring and hope of new possibilities. Emerald is the birthstone for May and a talisman for Gemini.

Spring can also be seen in the network of inclusions in the depth of the emerald that the French call the jardin, or garden, because it resembles foliage. The inclusions are like a fingerprint, giving each emerald a distinct personality and distinguishing them as truly natural gemstones.

Diamond

Diamond is celebrated for the purity of its brilliance. Yet within the structure of diamond, we often find impurities, or inclusions, that deflect light, distracting our eye from the radiance we so value. Many of these tiny imperfections are removed when the diamond is shaped. Today, cutters also have the option of using an enhancement technique that focuses tiny beams of laser light at imperfections and vaporizes them.

Diamonds may also be colored in a variety of hues. Extreme heat and irradiation permanently enhance certain innate color properties, allowing them to display their hues in more brilliant array. Black diamonds, for example, are usually enhanced in
this way.

Coral

Used for adornment since prehistoric times, coral inlays and ornaments have been found in Celtic tombs from the Iron Age. An organic gemstone from the sea, coral was believed to bestow wisdom, protect from evil, heal wounds and calm the soul. A semi-translucent to opaque gemstone, coral is formed from a colony of marine invertebrates and primarily made of calcium carbonate.

White is the most common color in coral, but a variety of other shades can be found, including pink, orange, red and black. The rarest color is a deep red.

Coral is commonly enhanced to improve its color and durability. White coral is bleached. Pink coral is permeated with a colorless wax and orange coral is stabilized with plastic. Black coral is sometimes bleached to create gold coral. Occasionally, red coral is dyed to deepen or uniform its color. All commonly used forms of coral enhancement are stable.

Citrine

Named from the French word for lemon, "citron" since citrine has a juicy lemon color. In ancient times, citrine was carried as a protection against snake venom and evil thoughts.

Sunny and affordable, citrine can brighten almost any jewelry style, blending especially well with the yellow gleam of polished gold.

It is the most affordable of all the earth-toned gemstones and is the alternate birthstone for November. Brazil and Zambia is the primary source of this gemstones.

Chrysoprase

A favorite of Frederick the Great of Prussia, chrysoprase, is prized bright apple green translucent hue. It can be seen today decorating many buildings in beautiful Prague, including the Chapel of St. Wencelas.

Unlike most other green gemstones, which owe their color to chromium or vanadium, chrysoprase derives its color from nickel. Its bright even color and texture lends itself well to beads, cabochons, and carvings.

Chrysoprase is the most valued variety of chalcedony. Chrysoprase is found today mostly
in Australia.

Chrysoberyl

Valued for thousands of years, chrysoberyl is a surprising gem that you'll love as much for what it does as for how it looks. Chrysoberyl is an action gem, changing and moving in response to light. In the gem world, these special effects are known as phenomena. The gem varieties of chrysoberyl respond to light in surprising ways.

The best-known special effect of chrysoberyl is an eye, which is displayed when certain specimens of this gem are cut in a dome shape. Cat's-eye chrysoberyl has a pupil-like band of light that sweeps across its dome. The "eye" is caused by fibrous inclusions that reflect the light in a sharply defined pattern. The effect is uncanny and quite cat-like. Although other gem varieties can display this effect, none is as dramatic.

Fine cat's-eye chrysoberyl often also shows the "milk and honey" effect. When a bright light is directed at the side of the stone, one side of the eye will be milky white and the other remains gold. When the gemstone is rotated, the colors switch.

Chrome Diopside

In Siberia, there isn't much green to admire for most of the year. Perhaps in compensation, nature placed rich deposits of a vivid green chrome diopside in this snowy region to delight the eye during the long and hard winter months.

This challenging landscape is home to the world's primary source of chrome diopside, a diopside gem variety that is colored by chromium, the important element that also gives emerald its rich green color. Chrome diopside is mined in a remote location in Eastern Siberia known as Inagli in the state of Sakha. The area is better known for its impressive diamond deposits.

Gems with an attractive pure green color are generally rare and pricey. Emerald is, of course, is the most valuable and popular green gem. Chrome diopside glows with green. In fact, when its color is less than ideal it tends to be from too much green rather than too little.

Chalcedony

Chalcedony was a treasured gemstone of the ancient world. No important Roman would be without a seal, amulet or signet ring carved in this fine and durable material. The Victorians, too, prized chalcedony for carved cameos and intaglios: its fine texture allows for delicate and intricate workmanship. Jewelry designers today love its glowing translucent tones and its availability in a wide range of colors and shapes, including carvings.

Varieties of chalcedony show an amazing variety of colors and patterns. The translucent stripes and bands of agates, the rich opaque green and brown of fine-grained jasper, the plant like forms of moss agate, the green and red pattern of bloodstone, the rich translucent orange-red of carnelian and apple-green of chrysoprase, and the opaque black of onyx are all faces of the versatile quartz gem.

Beryl

Like people, gems come in closely related families. One of the most important gem families is beryl.  With a trace of chromium to bestow a fabulous green, beryl becomes emerald, the rare and valuable green gem. If instead, nature includes a trace of iron in one valence state, beryl is aquamarine. If the iron in beryl has a different valence state, it isn’t pale blue: it turns a rich golden yellow. Golden beryl is as brilliant as aquamarine, with a warm sunny color.

Beryl is found in all corners of the globe, with individual colors being determined by the other minerals found in those regions. South America and Asia tend to produce blues and greens, while Africa produces yellows and greens and the rarest color, red, is only found in one location, the Wah Wah Mountains in Utah.

Aquamarine

The very name aquamarine brings to mind the limpid, clear blue tint of the sea. Legend says that Neptune, the King of the Sea, gave aquamarine as gifts to the mermaids, and from then on, it has brought love to all who have owned it.

Aquamarines are found in a range of blue shades, from the palest pastel to greenish-blue to a deep blue. While the choice of color is largely a matter of taste, the deeper blue gemstones are more rare. Remember that Aquamarine is a pastel gemstone, and while color can be quite intense in larger gemstones, the smaller aquamarines are often
less vivid.

This elegant colored gemstone is the birthstone of March and is the symbol of youth, hope, health and fidelity. Aquamarine was long thought to have a soothing influence on married couples, making it a good anniversary gift.

Ammolite

Ammolite is formed from the fossilized shells of ancient sea creatures called ammonites. Seventy million years of tectonic pressure, heat, and mineralization resulted in the formation of an iridescent ammolite layer in the fossil. Although ammonite fossils can be found around the world, ammolite has only been found in one place, the Bearpaw geological formation in southern Alberta, Canada, making it one of the rarest gemstones.

The quality of ammolite is based on a combination of brilliance and diversity of color in the stone. The highest quality ammolite is very brilliant with every spectral color present. Particularly prized are ammonite fossils covered with ammolite.  For hundreds of years, the Blackfoot tribe considered the gem a gift from the gods, possessing supernatural properties.

Ametrine

Occasionally, Mother Nature combines the colors of amethyst and citrine into a single, exciting gemstone we call ametrine. The Anahi Mine in Bolivia became famous in the seventeenth century when a Spanish conquistador received it as a dowry when he married a princess from the Ayoreos tribe named Anahi. Ametrine was introduced to Europe through the conquistador's gifts to the Spanish queen.

Ametrine is as affordable as regular amethyst or citrine, and you can have both gemstones for the price of one. Ametrine is especially inexpensive when you consider that it comes from only one place.

Amethyst

Purple has long been considered a royal color, so it is not surprising that amethyst has been so much in demand throughout history. Fine amethysts are featured in the British Crown Jewels and were also a favorite of Catherine the Great and Egyptian royalty. Great thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci believed that amethyst could dissipate evil thoughts and quicken the intelligence.

Designers celebrate amethyst as the ideal choice for jewelry because of its regal color, variety of sizes and shapes, affordability and wide tonal range from light to dark purple.

Alexandrite (Day)

If you love magic, especially the magic of science, you'll love alexandrite, the color-change gem. Outside in daylight, it is a cool bluish mossy green. Inside in lamplight, it is a red gem, with a warm raspberry tone. You can watch it flick back and forth by switching from fluorescent to incandescent light.

Alexandrite is a gem variety of the mineral chrysoberyl discovered in 1830 in Czarist Russia. Since the old Russian imperial colors are red and green, it was named after Czar Alexander II on the occasion of his coming of age.

Alexandrite (Night)

If you love magic, especially the magic of science, you'll love alexandrite, the color-change gem. Outside in daylight, it is a cool bluish mossy green. Inside in lamplight, it is a red gem, with a warm raspberry tone. You can watch it flick back and forth by switching from fluorescent to incandescent light.

Alexandrite is a gem variety of the mineral chrysoberyl discovered in 1830 in Czarist Russia. Since the old Russian imperial colors are red and green, it was named after Czar Alexander II on the occasion of his coming of age.