June Birthstone

June Birthstone - Pearl

The birthstone of June has been traditionally listed as the moonstone, alexadrite or pearl, but in 1912, the American National Association of Jewelers who came up with a specific list of birthstones and standardized on the pearl for the month of June.

Not really a gemstone in the typical sense, this birthstone for June is a wonderful gem unlike all others. Created by an irritant in a mollusk, the pearl has been used in jewelry throughout history and makes a perfect birthstone gem. Pearls have special properties and must be cared for gently in order to maintain their luster and value. If you intend to buy your June born loved one birthstone jewelry, read this guide on cultured pearl jewelry so that you will know what to look for when shopping.

Before the beginning of the 20th Century, pearl hunting was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. As you can imagine, this was time consuming and didn’t leave many pearls for the common person born in June to wear as birthstone jewelry!

Now, however, birthstone jewelry for June babies is quite common as almost all pearls used for jewellery are cultured by planting a core into Pearl Oysters. The pearls are usually harvested two years after the planting. This mariculture process was first developed by Kokichi Mikimoto from Japan, who was granted a patent for the process in 1896. The original Japanese cultured pearls are produced by a species of small oysters no bigger than 6 to 7 cm in size, hence Japanese pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. The birthstone of June can be found in any size in birthstone jewelry, when shopping for pearl birthstone jewelry, however go by quality as opposed to size (or both!).

In the past couple of decades, cultured pearls have been produced with larger oysters in the south Pacific and Indian Ocean. South Sea pearls are characterized by their large size and silvery color. Sizes up to 14 mm in diameter are not uncommon. Australia is one of the most important sources of South Sea pearls. You can buy June birthstone jewelry online in the form of the standard round pearl as well as different shapes and the shell shaped mother of pearl.

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