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When selecting a gemstone or piece of jewelry with the birthstone for the month of October whether for yourself or as a gift for someone else, there are two different modern types of gemstones to choose from: Tourmaline and Opal. More likely you will find that Opal is the main popular choice of gemstone for October instead of Tourmaline, but you cannot go wrong when selecting one or the other and there is one thing both of these stones have in common: lots and lots of variation in the gemstones’ color.

These modern birthstones are not the only colorful gemstones for October. Different cultures as well as Mystical and Ancient birthstones are just as colorful.

The History of Tourmaline & Opal Gemstones

Tourmaline was given its name from the Sinhalese word, “turmali,” because of its different colors and all gemstones from Sri Lanka were named after this term. Many different cultures have used Tourmaline in decoration from Russia to China and India. Many cultures actually believed that Tourmaline could bring a wearer different abilities such as insight or enlightenment, similar to a philosopher’s stone.

Tourmaline can vary in color from teal, green, light to dark yellow, pink, and even watermelon which is a combination of pink, white, and green bands. Because Tourmaline comes in such a wide variety of colors, there is an ancient Egyptian myth that on its way to the earth, the gemstone passed over a rainbow. With any slight change in the stone’s composition of aluminum boron silicate, there are endless possibilities to what the color of the stone will become or if it is more than just one color.

A pink Tourmaline for example can vary from a light to a dark pink so that it appears to be a ruby in some cases to the naked eye. Other common gemstone mix-ups include a green Tourmaline with an emerald or deep blue with a sapphire.

Gemologists will have different names for colored Tourmaline such as:

Rubellite for dark pink Tourmaline

Shocking pink for light pink Tourmaline

Indigolites for blue Tourmaline

Dravites for yellow-brown Tourmaline

Schorl for black Tourmaline

Verdelite for green Tourmaline

Just like there are different types of Tourmaline gemstones as far as color, there are different types of Opal gemstones as well based on color, the different cuts and opalescence appearance. Some Opals will have an obvious play of rainbow color when they are even slight moved, but other Opal gemstones remain one solid color and sometimes are a little transparent. There are three basic types of Opal: precious, common, and fire.

A precious Opal is the most common type we picture when we think about this gemstone and can be found in an array of different rainbow colors. Each precious Opal is very unique as far as the pattern and uniformity of the colorful spheres with different base colors ranging from white, blue, red, green, and more. The exact name of an Opal is determined based on its base color whether it is white, black, or crystal.

The common Opal does not have any type of play of color on the surface of the gemstone but instead is a beautiful pastel color in shades of light yellow, pink and sky blue. The common Opal can be found in many different places throughout the world. The fire Opal is a colorful gemstone that does not have a play of color either, but is slightly translucent in colors such as orange and yellow.

These three types of Opals are further broken down into subcategories based on their spherical pattern. For a fire Opal alone, there are many different names that describe the fire pattern on the gemstone:

Harlequin Opal

Contra-Luz Color Play

Pinfire or Pinpoint Opal

Cat’s Eye Opal

Other Birthstones for October

Past birthstones that were common for October have included Ancient, Mystical, and gemstones according to different cultures from around the world. According to Ancient and Mystical birthstones, the gemstones are Coral and Jasper instead of Opal or Tourmaline. Jasper is a spotted stone because of its fine grains that can be found in a variety of different colors from all over the world including:

Africa: Egypt and Madagascar

Australia

Brazil and Uruguay

Canada and the United States

India

Kazakhstan

Depending on the location of the Jasper, there will be different colors and patterns found on the gemstones with different spots and banding and titled as such:

Agate

Basanite

Blood Jasper

Horstone

Moulaite

Plasma

Silex

Based on Ancient ideology, Coral is the gemstone of choice for October. Unlike these other three gemstones: Opal, Tourmaline, and Jasper which can be found in a wide variety of different colors, precious coral for jewelry can only be really found in shades of intense red and pink. Coral has been a very popular choice from ancient Egypt, Europe, and especially during the Victorian age.

The modern and traditional gemstone may have been set by the Jewelers of America in 1912 that chose Tourmaline and Opal as the birthstones for October, but according to different cultures, they have their own birthstone for October. Aquamarine, a variety of beryl, is the most popular ancient traditional birthstone by the Hebrew, Roman, Arabic, and Polish tradition.

Otherwise simply beryl is the choice of birthstone for Russia. Following the theme of having the most variety in color out of any other birth month, beryl and aquamarine gemstones can be found in a variety of color.

All in all, there are different specific birthstones for October, but no matter what, each gemstone will be unique and colorful, guaranteed.