About Timeless Gemstones

Why this site exists

Most birthstone sites publish one chart and present it as fact. It usually isn't fact. It's one convention among several, quietly picked over the others. The traditional zodiac stone list and the modern jewelry-trade zodiac list, for example, name a different stone for every one of the twelve signs. Neither is more "real" than the other. They're two separate systems, set by different authorities in different centuries, and most pages don't tell you which one you're looking at.

Timeless Gemstones exists to show that disagreement instead of hiding it. Specifically, every comparison table on this site cites the system behind each column — its authority, and the year it was set or revised — so you can see where a claim actually comes from. However, where the sources are genuinely uncertain or contradictory, the site says so rather than picking a side to look tidy.

How the reference data works

The reference data — Mohs hardness, chemical formula, crystal system, and so on — follows the same rule. Sometimes a single figure would misrepresent a stone. For example, garnet is a mineral group, opal is non-crystalline, and lapis lazuli is a rock rather than a single mineral. As a result, those entries say so instead of forcing a number that doesn't hold up.

Where to start

The site covers zodiac birthstones, monthly birthstones, and a growing catalog of individual gemstones. Additionally, there's a birthstone finder tool that shows every system's answer for a given date side by side. For instance, you can start at the zodiac birthstones hub or the gemstone reference if you're not sure where to begin.

Questions, corrections, or a source we've got wrong? See the contact page.