Emerald is May's birthstone together with Green Agate, and are also the birthstones for the zodiacs Taurus & Gemini. Each month has its own unique gemstone to represent it. Carrying your birthstone is said to bring good luck. You can carry your birthstone as a good luck amulet, or your loved ones’ birthstone as a symbol of love.

Find your birthstone here

The use of emeralds can be traced all the back to ancient Egypt. Here, the emerald was a symbol of fertility, rebirth and the afterlife. Allegedly, it was Queen Cleopatra’s favourite gemstone.

Emerald is a Beryl gemstone, just like Aquamarine and Morganite. It’s well-known for its grass-green colour which it attains from the elements, chrome and vanadium when created underground. Emerald is a gemstone often seen with many inclusions, sometimes in fine patterns. Among others, emerald is mined in Columbia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Russia, Brazil, Pakistan and Afghanistan. When measuring a gemstone’s hardness, Moh’s Hardness Scale is used. The scale goes from 1-10, where 10 is the hardest – here you would find the diamond, which is the hardest gemstone. Emeralds are often around 7.5 and 8 on Moh’s Hardness Scale.