Samson Jewellery - Birth Stone
January / Garnet

Garnet is not a single mineral, but rather a group of similar minerals known as the "garnet group."  All the natural garnets are complex silicates that differ in chemical composition, but have almost identical atomic structures.  Garnets are not only red; they may be orange, yellow, brown, pale green, deep green, violet, purple, or even colorless.

Garnet is a truly ancient gem, known thousands of years before the birth of Christ.  In those early days of civilization garnet, along with other gems, was known as "carbuncle."  Although this term was generally applied to any red gem, today only red cabochon - cut garnets are called carbuncles.   As with most other stones, garnets were considered to have great curative powers, especially against fevers.  The wearer of a garnet was supposed to be protected in his travels and kept in good health.  The name "garnet" comes from the Latin word "granatus," meaning "like seeds," because garnets in a rock look somewhat like the seeds in a pomegranate.

The Victorian era made extensive use of reddish garnets mined in Bohemia (now Czechoslovakia).  These became quite popular and were widely used in low-cost jewelry, thus popularizing garnet as a gem and, unfortunately, cheapening its image.  Reddish-brown garnets are still very inexpensive, although red, violet, and purple gems can be fairly costly, especially in larger sizes.

Garnet, with its large range of colors, is perhaps the most underrated of all gems.  Nearly all the garnet species have gem potential.   They are all about the same hardness, 6.5-7.5 on the Mohs scale, and none show cleavage, thus making them suitable for any type of jewelry.  Cut garnets can be very brilliant and show rich, lovelycolors that look good both in sunlight and in artificial light.