Tourmaline: The October Birthstone Guide
What Is the October Birthstone?
The newest October birthstone is tourmaline (October also has a second birthstone, which is the opal). Couples also give tourmaline to celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary.
What Are the Characteristics of the October Birthstone?
Not many gemstones can match the array of colors found in tourmaline. Tourmaline comes in deep reds to pastel pinks and peaches to emerald green and vivid yellows and deep blues (“Tourmaline History and Lore”).
What Is the History of the October Birthstone?
The name “tourmaline” comes from the Sinhalese word (a Sri Lankan language) “toramali,” which means “stone with mixed colors.” This is because tourmaline can have many colors in a single crystal. After miners found pebbles of the gem in Sri Lanka, Dutch merchants named the gemstone (“Tourmaline History and Lore”).
Because of tourmaline’s many colors, ancient mystics believed it could “inspire artistic expression.” Also, people often confused tourmaline with other gemstones, like rubies and emeralds (“Tourmaline Birthstone”).
In fact, when a Spanish conquistador discovered tourmaline somewhere in Brazil in the 1500s, he thought he had found an emerald. Additionally, one of the “rubies” in the Russian crown jewels is actually a red tourmaline (rubellite) (“Tourmaline Birthstone”). People continued to confuse tourmaline for other gemstones until the 1800s when scientists finally recognized tourmaline as its own mineral species (“Tourmaline History and Lore”).
Tourmaline wasn’t discovered in the US until the late 1800s; miners found it in California in 1892. Tourmaline became known as an American gem because of Tiffany gemologist George F. Kunz. He praised the stones from the tourmaline deposits in California and Maine (“Tourmaline History and Lore”).
Though gemologists considered tourmaline an American gem, China was one of the biggest markets for it. The Chinese Dowager Empress Tz’u Hsi loved the pink and red tourmaline from the San Diego County mines. In China, they carved tourmaline into snuff bottles and used it in jewelry (“Tourmaline History and Lore”).