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What’s the birthstone for January? Which Garnet?

multicolourgems:

Garnet is the most widely accepted birthstone for  January the 2nd anniversary of marriage, but in fact garnet is a family of at least six related and cross-mixed varieties available in almost every color of the spectrum and in a price range for every budget.

The family name Garnet comes from the Latin word “Garanatus”, which means “seedlike” in reference to a pomegranate seed size and color, and to add more confusion, garnets are usually called by their trade names that represent either a very specific color, like Mandarin Garnet and Color Change Garnet, or a place where that garnet was discovered and mined, like Bohemian garnet, Tsavorite or Mozambique Garnet.

The following are the 10 most popular members of the garnet family:

1. Almandite
2. Color Change Garnet
3. Demantoid
4. Hessonite
5. Malaia Garnet
6. Mali Garnet
7. Pyrope
8. Rhodolite
9. Spessartite
10. Tsavorite

Garnet varieties are found in almost every color of the spectrum, but the rarest of these are the blue color changing garnets discovered recently in Madagascar and the green demantoid garnets discovered in Russia more than a century ago. And, although garnets are found on every continent, Africa is and will most probably continue to be the most important and diverse source for the best garnets of any color.

(Source: multicolour.com)

• 8 Mar 2016
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