If you were lucky enough to be born in June, you have the choice of not one, not two but THREE gemstones for your birthstone! Which will you choose??
The first is not from the earth but the sea and require no faceting or polishing....The pearl has been used in jewellery for centuries. They were a favourite of the Romans and the 1500's in Tudor England were known as the "pearl age". In the early 1900's, commercial cultured pearls started to appear and since the 1920's, nearly all pearls on the market are now cultured.
The next gemstone, in contrast, is a relatively new discovery. First discovered in Russia in 1831, Alexandrite was named after Czar Alexander II and has the amazing property that it changes colour depending on the light! In daylight and fluorescent light it's a lovely green but in incandescent light it is a purplish red.
The third and final June gemstone is the lovely moonstone. When a moonstone is moved back and forth, silvery rays glint like moonbeams over water. Pliny, the ancient Roman natural historian, said that moonstone changed in appearance with the phases of the moon and this belief carried on until the sixteenth century. Moonstones were believed to have the power to bring victory, health, and wisdom to those who wore it.
