The concept of twelve different gemstones was found displayed on a breastplate of a High Priest in Ancient Egypt that was excavated from a tomb dating from circa 4000 BCE. Thereafter the Hebrews adopted the concept, assigning a stone to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tradition evolved from there with gemstones being assigned to the twelve angels, then the twelve Apostles and finally the twelve months. Birthstones came into fashion sometime in the eighteenth century. These colored gemstones and crystals were thought to offer predictions for the future, to protect the wearer from harm and to aid healing.

Birthstones Traditional & Modern

Traditional Birthstones were society based, containing popular stones that may have correlated to the stone of the Zodiac sign or the Planetary sign. The Gregorian Calendar has a poem (below) matching the monthly birthstones. These are the generally stones associated with English speaking society; the poem was first published in 1867 by Tiffany & Co.

Modern Birthstones came about around 1912 in an effort to standardize the list. The American portion of the National Association of Jewelers met and officially adopted a list; the Jewelry Industry Council of America updated that list in 1952; adding Citrine and Alexandrite, specifying pink Tourmaline for October (not reflected here), replacing December’s Lapis with Zircon and switching the primary and alternative gems for March. The most recent change occurred in 2002 with the addition of Tanzanite as a December birthstone (not reflected here). Britain’s National Association of Goldsmiths created their own different standardized list in 1967. No wonder there is so much confusion!