The Birthstones, Before 1912
Your birth-month stone is younger than you think. Here is what it was before the American jewelers standardized the list — recorded in a gem book of 1909.
The list of birthstones most people know — garnet for January, diamond for April, pearl for June — was fixed by committee. In 1912 the American national association of jewelers agreed on a standard slate of monthly stones, and that is very nearly the list still printed on jewelry-store charts today.
But when Julius Wodiska published A Book of Precious Stones in 1909, three years earlier, the “generally accepted” list was still the older one — and in three months it named a different stone entirely. His book preserves that pre-1912 reckoning, along with an even older one drawn from the signs of the zodiac.
Three stones the committee changed
Where the 1909 list and the modern list part ways.
The complete month-by-month list of 1909 lives in the book’s interactive birthstone finder.
The Zodiac Stones of 1909
Wodiska also records an older reckoning — stones ruled not by the calendar month but by the signs of the zodiac.
| Stone | Sign | Period of influence |
|---|---|---|
| Garnet | Aquarius | January 21 – February 21 |
| Amethyst | Pisces | February 21 – March 21 |
| Bloodstone | Aries | March 21 – April 20 |
| Sapphire | Taurus | April 20 – May 21 |
| Agate | Gemini | May 21 – June 21 |
| Emerald | Cancer | June 21 – July 22 |
| Onyx | Leo | July 22 – August 22 |
| Carnelian | Virgo | August 22 – September 22 |
| Chrysolite | Libra | September 22 – October 23 |
| Aquamarine | Scorpio | October 23 – November 21 |
| Topaz | Sagittarius | November 21 – December 21 |
| Ruby | Capricorn | December 21 – January 21 |
A stone for every day of the week
About the source & how to cite
All of the above is drawn from the chapter “Birthstones and the Zodiac” in A Book of Precious Stones by Julius Wodiska, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, in 1909 — reproduced in full and free to read at The Nature Encyclopedia.
The 1909 text is in the public domain and free to quote, teach from, and reuse. Writers and researchers are welcome to link this page. Suggested citation:
“The Birthstones, Before 1912.” The Nature Encyclopedia — drawn from Julius Wodiska, A Book of Precious Stones (1909).
https://natureencyclopedia.com/a-book-of-precious-stones/birthstones-before-1912.html