Advanced options
What The Birthstone Calculator Works Out
- Birthstone: the traditional gemstone for your birth month, from the list standardised by the American jewellers' association in 1912 and adopted internationally with small variations: garnet for January through turquoise for December, with the famous ones being April's diamond, May's emerald, July's ruby and September's sapphire. The sub-line gives the stone's traditional symbolism.
- Birth flower: the parallel tradition from the Victorian language of flowers, where each bloom carried a coded meaning. June pairs pearl with the rose, September sapphire with the aster. Flowers make a thoughtful, and cheaper, gift theme than gemstones.
- Colour: the characteristic colour of the stone, useful when choosing coloured glass, enamel or a cheaper lookalike in the right shade.
- Alternative stone (advanced): most months carry a recognised alternative (alexandrite or moonstone for June, tourmaline for October, citrine for November, bloodstone for March), which jewellers use where the primary stone is costly. A citrine ring costs a fraction of a fine topaz one.
- Star sign stone (advanced): enter the day of the month and the calculator finds the Western star sign and its traditional zodiac stone, an older system than the monthly list and traced back to the twelve stones of the biblical breastplate of Aaron. It often differs from the month stone, giving a second gift option.
- Hardness (advanced): the stone's position on the Mohs scale, from pearl at about 3 to diamond at 10. Household dust contains quartz (hardness 7), so anything softer than 7 will slowly scratch in a ring worn daily. Choose how the piece will be worn and the sub-line gives a practical verdict: opal, pearl and turquoise suit pendants and earrings; sapphire, ruby and diamond shrug off anything.
- Second birth flower (advanced): most months have two flowers in the Victorian tradition (snowdrop as well as carnation for January, honeysuckle alongside the rose for June), each with its own meaning.
- Full table (advanced): all twelve months with stone, alternative, hardness and both flowers, handy for a mother's ring carrying each child's stone or for choosing a durable alternative.