Garnet group · January birthstone
Garnet
Not one stone but a family, and almost never treated.
- Hardness
- Mohs 7
- Toughness
- Fair to good
- Daily wear
- Good for daily wear
- Price tier
- USD 20 to 3,000 (tsavorite and demantoid higher) per carat, fine quality
- Colours
- Red (pyrope, almandine), Purple-red (rhodolite), Orange (spessartine), Green (tsavorite, demantoid)
- Origins
- Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Namibia
Garnet is a group of related minerals in every colour except blue: classic red pyrope and almandine, raspberry rhodolite, mandarin-orange spessartine, and the green garnets, tsavorite and demantoid, which rival emerald in colour and beat it in brilliance. Garnets are hard enough for daily wear, bright, and almost always untreated, which makes them one of the honest bargains of the gem world.
How to buy garnet
Explore beyond red: rhodolite and spessartine are vivid and affordable, tsavorite is a serious alternative to emerald. Look for brightness and absence of windows.
Treatments
Almost never treated.
Care
Warm soapy water; ultrasonic is usually safe.
Lore
Noah is said to have lit the ark with a garnet lantern; Bohemian garnets covered the jewelry of nineteenth-century Europe.
