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January and February
January's birthstone, the garnet, comes in a variety of colors. The word garnet comes from "granatum" and translates into "seed," because of the gem's resemblance to the seeds of the pomegranate. Though commonly associated with red shades such as the dark red of the pyrope garnet, garnets come in many colors, like the brilliant green of the tsavorite type. The rarest is the blue garnet, which was not found until the 1990s.
The amethyst, the birthstone associated with February, is a type of purple quartz. Amethysts that are darker purples are more costly than those that are light lavender or smoky colored.
March and April
Deep blue aquamarines are the most valuable. This March birthstone's name literally means "seawater" and ranges in tint from a light blue to teal. Sailors at one time felt aquamarines protected them from the hazards of the ocean.
The hardest mineral, the diamond, is the birthstone of April. While many are clear and have no color, some have hues like red, pink, blue or yellow. The appeal of a colored diamond prompts some jewelers to add color artificially in a laboratory setting.
May June July
The birthstone of May, the emerald, comes in many shades of green. Emeralds are the green form of the mineral beryl, and the hues vary from a yellow-green to a bluish-green.
Pearls have many colors, with some a milky white and others being black. This June birthstone is the only gemstone produced by a living creature, forming in oysters.
July's ruby, a gem-quality version of the mineral corundum, can be found in various tints of red, with a vibrant deep red ruby highly valued.
August September October
The peridot, a gemstone that those born in August have as a birthstone, varies from a greenish-yellow to brown. Lime green peridots as well as olive green ones are extremely popular, with a brown color diminishing the gem's value.
September's birthstone is the sapphire, a stone that comes in every color except red. Sapphires are made of the same mineral that rubies are, so the colors other than red of corundum are sapphires and the red ones are rubies.
October's opal birthstone has a name that essentially means "changing colors." Opals are iridescent and display a wide array of colors, including white, black, green, orange and red.
November and December
November has two gems that serve as its birthstones. The topaz comes in pink, violet, orange, yellow and blue. Orange and pinkish topaz, called Imperial topaz, is highly regarded. The citrine, also representing November, is a kind of quartz found in multiple shades such as yellow, brownish-yellow and orange brown.
The month of December's stone, the turquoise, has a bluish color. Many are robin's egg blue while others can display a greenish-blue hue.