Birthstones by month

April’s birthstone is the diamond. The full list is below. Before you use it to buy something, one thing worth knowing: this list is younger and more commercial than it looks.

The list

Where the list came from, honestly

The idea is genuinely ancient. It is usually traced to the breastplate of Aaron in the book of Exodus, twelve stones for twelve tribes, later mapped onto the twelve months. That part is thousands of years old.

The list above is not. The modern standardised list was set in 1912 by the American National Association of Jewelers, a trade body, and it has been amended since by trade bodies. Alexandrite and others came in later. Tanzanite was added to December in 2002, four decades after the stone was discovered in Tanzania and while one company controlled most of the supply. Spinel was added to August in 2016.

So when a jeweller tells you a stone is “your” birthstone, what they are telling you is which stone a jewellery trade association assigned to your month within living memory. That does not make it meaningless. Traditions have to start somewhere and people genuinely love them. It does mean nobody should feel obliged.

Different countries also keep different lists. The British list differs from the American one in several months, and the Indian and Tibetan systems are different again. If someone tells you your birthstone is something other than what is above, they are probably reading a different and equally valid list.

The April problem

Every other month gets a coloured stone that can be bought for a few hundred or a few thousand rand. April gets the most expensive gemstone in common use.

That is a real and slightly unfair gap. A garnet pendant for a January birthday is an easy present. A diamond pendant for an April birthday is a different conversation.

Some honest options if April is the month and a diamond is the answer:

Go small and good rather than big and poor. A 0.25 to 0.35 carat stone that is well cut, eye-clean and near-colourless looks better on a chain than a half-carat with a visible inclusion and a dull cut. At pendant size, cut quality does more visible work than carat weight.

Studs spread the weight. A pair of 0.15 carat studs reads as more diamond than a single 0.30 carat pendant, and usually costs less than a single stone of the same total weight, because smaller stones are cheaper per carat.

Rock crystal is the old April stone. Before the 1912 list, clear quartz was widely used for April. It is beautiful, it is honest, and it costs almost nothing. If the point is the gesture rather than the value, it is not a compromise, it is the original answer.

What an April diamond costs here

Real ranges, VAT included, for pendant and stud sizes:

These move with the rand and with the individual stone. Our live search shows what is actually on the market today at a price you can act on, rather than a number we would like to be true.

If it is not April and you are here for a coloured stone, we source those too, but we will tell you plainly that a diamond dealer is not always the cheapest place to buy an amethyst. Ask us and we will point you somewhere sensible.