August's Birthstone Is Peridot

Peridot, August Birthstone, is also a choice for many fashionable designers and featured in our cases at Roman Jewelers. The vivid green of the peridot (pronounced pear-a-doe), with just a slight hint of gold, is the ideal gemstone color to go with that light summer wardrobe. No wonder – since the peridot is the gemstone of the summer month of August. The peridot is a very old gemstone, and one that has never gone out of fashion. It is also ancient-- found in Egyptian jewelry from the early 2nd millennium B.C.. The stones used at that time came from a deposit on a small volcanic island in the Red Sea, some 45 miles off the Egyptian coast, which was not rediscovered until about 1900 and has since been exhausted. A few years ago, however, peridot deposits were located in the Kashmir region of Pakistan and the stones from these deposits have an incomparably beautiful color and transparency. The ancient Romans were also fond of this gemstone and esteemed its radiant green shine, which does not change even in artificial light. For that reason they nicknamed it the 'emerald of the evening' .

An interesting fact about the peridot is that it is one of the few gemstones which come in one color only--a rich, green color with the slight tinge of gold is caused by very fine traces of iron. The intensity of the color depends on the amount of iron actually present and can vary over all shades of yellowish green and olive, and even to a brownish green. August's birthstone adds a wonderful variant to the color spectrum of green gemstones, a color so uplifting and versitile.