March Birthstone: Aquamarine

Aquamarine: The birthstone for March and the gem of choice for 19 years of marriage.  It has a hardness of 7.5 - 8 on Mohs Hardness Scale and is a member of the gemstone family Beryl. Colour range for this gem is quite narrow from greenish blue, to a blueish green. It has a market preferred colour of a purer blue which is most often the result of heat treating. It is more likely for untreated stones to be a greenish colour of blue. 

Aquamarine named by the Romans about 2,000 years ago, its name is derived from the Latin word Aqua, meaning “water” and Marina meaning “of the sea”. It is said to be a gemstone that cools the temper, allowing the wearer to remain level-headed and calm. 

Most gem quality material is fashioned into final cut gems and are most often then heat treated to remove the more naturally green tones, or any grey tones in overly darkly coloured stones. Fashioned gems often have to be over 5 carats to show intense colour. Although small gems are rarely saturated enough to be considered attractive. These larger pieces of rough can result in large carvings being created in slightly lower quality material. In some Beryl crystals, there are enough parallel inclusions - usually long hollow or liquid filled tubes, for cutters to fashion the rough to show the cats-eye phenomenon.

Brazil has long been the world’s most important source of gem-quality. Since 1811 this is the original source of the most highly prized “Santa Maria” colour. Which is to describe a highly transparent and highly saturated deep colour of blue.

Most gem-quality forms in pegmatites, rough forms in characteristically highly transparent six-sided long crystals and can form from very small to extremely large. The largest of these historically found at its original main source of Brazil’s Minas Giras mine in 1910 weighed 110kg (242 lbs). It measured 48cm (19”) long and 38cm (15”) in diameter, but it’s more likely for large crystals to be around 45kg (100 lbs), these have been found in Brazil and the Ural regions of Russia. Other source countries are Africa’s - Nigeria and Madagascar. Mozambique is the newest source, where mining began in 1991. Mozambique material has been named “Santa Maria Africana” where stones of under 5 carats can have intense colouration. These can be readily found, however this material at times, has a colour too deep - making an overly grey colour and less attractive stone.

Aquamarine is a member of the gemstone group of Beryl, the most highly prized of which is Emerald. Emerald is coloured mainly by Chromium and or Vanadium with some Iron. Aquamarine, however, is coloured by the presence of Iron alone.

See below:

Green Berly: is coloured principally by Iron, with perhaps some Chromium, and looks very different from Emerald in colouration, but also occurs more commonly transparent unlike Emerald. 

Yellow Beryl: (Otherwise known as Heliodor) this stones typical colour can be orangish or have a greenish tint, also the result of Iron during growth. 

Morganite: is coloured by Manganese which results a colour palette of pale pink to rose and salmon or a deeper violetish pink colour. Strong colour hues are rare, gems usually need to be fairly large to achieve the finest of colour. This means small intensely coloured stones of this variety are rare, they are almost always heated to improve the pink hues.

And finally in 1897 the gem Red Beryl: Sometimes called “red Emerald” is the rarest of colours for the Beryl family. This stone is often highly saturated in colour in shades of purplish red to red, to orangy red. The colour of these is dependent on the concentration and valence state of manganese and other trace elements within the gem’s crystal structure. Red Beryl is so rare and like tanzanite, only comes from 1 source area in the world, in the case of Red Beryl, it is only found in the Wah Wah Mountains in southwestern Utah. When active, the mine only yielded on average, only 0.5 carats to 0.8 carats of facet quality rough per ton of rock. Fine quality stones over 1 carat are extremely rare, the largest of which ever recovered as reported to measure 14x34mm and weighed about 45 carats, the largest stone ever cut was just over 8 carats.

So, if you are born in March, you have this incredible and iconic stone to highlight your birthday. Although there is limited choice in colour, you do have the choice of a softer blue tone or something with a hint of green. Maybe you fancy a Santa Maria Aquamarine? Or maybe just some Aquamarine accents as a nod to your birthstone. Either way, we have a lovely selection of jewellery in stock, or you could get creative and have something bespoke designed. We can even order in some stone choices so you can see exactly what you’re getting!

Happy Shopping!