The birthstone determination is not at all straight forward. In Hebrew & Roman traditions October’s birthstone used to be aquamarine, according to the Hindu religion it is coral and in modern times we refer to opal and tourmaline.

Being a contemporary jewellery design company in South Africa, I settle for tourmaline and give you some more info on this beautiful Southern African gem:

Tourmaline has a special place in the hearts of mineral collectors as well as in that of gem and gemstone enthusiasts. Its nearly universal popularity is based upon two very important facts:
 

It is a bright and beautiful gemstone that can be found in just about any color;
Materials that are of acceptable quality are affordable to most purchasers.
The word “rainbow” is used figuratively to describe tourmaline. In reality, it is a well recognized fact that tourmaline’s diversity in color is not limited to the seven colors of the rainbow.
Tourmaline can be colorless to just about any color, hue, or tone known to man. And if range of colors among different tourmalines is not enough, individual crystals can vary in color along their length or in cross-section.
The variations in color along a crystal’s length give rise to the bicolor and tricolor tourmalines which have multitudes of color combinations.

ANPA stocks a selection of different tourmalines and tourmaline jewellery …

This entry was posted on Friday, October 1st, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under birthstones.