click to enlarge

The gems of October are opal and tourmaline, but many people believe that beryl also belong to October group of birthstones. Pure beryl is colorless, but it is frequently tinted by impurities; and possible colors are green, blue, yellow, red, and white. As a rule, color varieties of beryl have their own names, and we have already told about some of them.

Aquamarine and maxixe. Aquamarine is a blue or turquoise variety of beryl. It occurs at most localities which yield ordinary beryl, some of the finest coming from Russia. The deep blue version of aquamarine is called maxixe.

Emerald. Emerald refers to green beryl. Most emeralds are highly included, so their brittleness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor. Emerald is a rare and valuable gemstone and thought to be one of the top four precious stones.

Golden beryl and heliodor. Golden beryl can range in colors from pale yellow to a brilliant gold. The term "golden beryl" is sometimes synonymous with heliodor but golden beryl refers to pure yellow or golden yellow shades, while heliodor refers to the greenish-yellow shades.

click to enlarge

Goshenite. Colorless beryl is called goshenite. The name originates from Goshen, Massachusetts where it was originally described. Since all these color varieties are caused by impurities and pure beryl is colorless, it might be tempting to assume that goshenite is the purest variety of beryl.

Morganite. Morganite, also known as "pink beryl", "rose beryl", "pink emerald", and "cesian beryl", is a rare light pink to rose-colored gem-quality variety of beryl. In December 1910, the New York Academy of Sciences named the pink variety of beryl "morganite" after financier J.P.Morgan.

Red beryl. Red beryl (also known as "red emerald" or "scarlet emerald") is a red variety of beryl. The old synonym bixbite is deprecated from the CIBJO, because of the risk of confusion with the mineral bixbyite.

Beryl is found in Europe in Norway, Austria, Germany, Sweden (especially morganite), and Ireland, as well as Brazil, Colombia, Madagascar, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zambia. U.S. beryl locations are in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.