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Most people know June's birthstone is the pearl. Elegant, timeless, instantly recognizable — the pearl gets all the attention. But June actually has a second birthstone, and it might be the most extraordinary gem on earth. It changes color. In daylight it's green. Under incandescent light it turns red. And genuine specimens are so rare that most jewelers go their entire careers without ever handling one.
Its name is alexandrite, and if you've never heard of it, you're not alone. That's exactly what makes it so special.
Most gemstones get their color from trace elements absorbed during formation. Alexandrite does something almost no other mineral can: it appears to be two completely different stones depending on the light source. In natural daylight or fluorescent light, it glows a rich bluish-green. Under incandescent light — a candle, a lamp, a warm indoor bulb — it shifts to a purplish-red or raspberry hue.
This is caused by the way its chromium content absorbs light. The human eye, it turns out, is equally sensitive to green and red wavelengths, and alexandrite's chromium sits right at the boundary between the two. Swap the light source, and the stone essentially "chooses" which color to show. Gemologists call it the alexandrite effect, and it's considered the most dramatic color change in the gem world.
Fine-quality alexandrite showing a strong, clean shift — vivid green to vivid red with no muddiness — is rarer than ruby, rarer than sapphire, and in many cases rarer than diamond.
Alexandrite was first identified in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1830, in an emerald mine near the town of Yekaterinburg. The story goes that a group of miners brought a strange new stone back to camp at the end of the day. In the morning light it looked green — an emerald, perhaps. But when they gathered around the fire that night, the stone had turned unmistakably red.
The discovery landed on April 17, 1834 — the birthday of the future Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The stone was named alexandrite in his honor. The timing felt almost cosmically appropriate: green and red happened to be the military colors of Imperial Russia, and the gem was immediately embraced as a stone of national pride and good fortune.
For decades, the Ural Mountains were the only known source in the world, and the stones that came out of them are still considered the finest ever found — with color changes so dramatic and clean that they set the benchmark every alexandrite is measured against to this day. Those original Russian specimens are now extraordinarily scarce and command prices at auction that rival the world's finest rubies and sapphires.
When the Russian mines were largely exhausted by the early 20th century, alexandrite essentially disappeared from the jewelry market. It became the kind of gem whispered about in gemological circles — something serious collectors knew existed but rarely encountered in real life.
Then, in 1987, a significant deposit was discovered in Brazil's Hematita region. Brazilian alexandrite flooded the market and reintroduced the stone to a new generation of gem lovers. The color change in Brazilian stones is generally less dramatic than Russian specimens — often shifting from a yellowish-green to brownish-red — but the finest examples are still stunning, and the discovery made alexandrite accessible again after nearly a century of scarcity.
Other deposits have since been found in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Madagascar, and India's Andhra Pradesh region. Sri Lankan stones tend to be large but show a more muted color shift. Indian alexandrite from Andhra Pradesh is considered by many experts to be the closest modern rival to original Russian material, with strong, saturated color changes in smaller stones.
Even so, fine alexandrite — meaning stones with a strong, clean color change, good clarity, and meaningful carat weight — remains one of the rarest gems in commercial jewelry. A one-carat specimen of top quality can fetch more per carat than a D-color diamond.
Alexandrite never achieved the mass fame of rubies or sapphires, partly because genuine stones were so rarely available. But among those who knew gemstones, it inspired a particular reverence.
Tsar Alexander II — The young prince for whom the stone was named grew into an emperor who considered alexandrite a personal talisman. He wore it throughout his reign, and it remained a prized stone in the Russian Imperial collection until the fall of the Romanovs.
The Russian Aristocracy — During the 19th century, alexandrite became the fashionable stone of the Russian elite. Fabergé incorporated it into imperial eggs and jewels, and its dual-color symbolism — green for the forests of Russia, red for the blood of its warriors — gave it a romantic, patriotic mystique that no other stone could match.
Collectors and gem connoisseurs — In the modern era, alexandrite has become a white whale for serious gem collectors. Auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's regularly see fine alexandrite lots generate fierce bidding, particularly for unheated Russian stones with documented provenance. The GIA (Gemological Institute of America) considers color-change alexandrite among the most technically fascinating gems it grades, and a strong GIA report on a fine specimen adds substantial value.
Noted author and gem scholar George Frederick Kunz — Kunz, who served as the chief gemologist for Tiffany & Co. at the turn of the 20th century and is considered one of the founding figures of American gemology, wrote extensively about alexandrite and was reportedly enchanted by it. He described the stone as "an emerald by day, a ruby by night" — a phrase that has stuck for well over a century and remains the most evocative description of its color change.
Alexandrite is associated with intuition, creativity, and duality — the ability to hold two seemingly opposite truths at once. Some traditions link it to good luck and prosperity. Others see its color-shifting nature as a symbol of adaptability and resilience — the capacity to show up differently in different circumstances without losing your essential nature.
In the modern birthstone calendar it shares June with the pearl, and the two couldn't be more different in personality. The pearl is quietly luminous, soft, ancient. Alexandrite is electric, transformative, and deeply mysterious. If you're a June birthday, you have the most interesting birthstone duality of any month on the calendar.
Alexandrite is also the traditional gift for the 55th wedding anniversary — a choice that makes perfect sense when you consider what 55 years of partnership looks like: the same love, showing up differently in every season of life.
Because fine natural alexandrite is so rare and expensive, the market is full of alternatives — and it's worth understanding what you're buying.
Natural alexandrite is the real thing, formed over millions of years in the earth. Fine specimens with strong color change are among the most valuable gems in the world per carat.
Lab-created (synthetic) alexandrite is chemically identical to natural alexandrite — same mineral structure, same chromium content, same color-change phenomenon — but grown in a laboratory. It's widely available, far more affordable, and shows excellent color change. Many jewelers sell lab-created alexandrite as a perfectly legitimate option, and for everyday jewelry it's a beautiful choice. The key is transparency: you should always know which you're buying.
Alexandrite simulants — stones that look like alexandrite but are chemically something else entirely — are also common. Color-change glass, synthetic corundum, and certain garnets are sometimes sold under misleading names. If you're investing in alexandrite, always ask for documentation.
Color-change garnet deserves a special mention. It's a naturally occurring gem (not synthetic) that produces a color change similar to alexandrite — green to red or gray to purple — and is significantly rarer than most garnets. It's not alexandrite, but it's a genuinely remarkable stone in its own right, and an honest jeweler will tell you exactly what it is.
Shopping for alexandrite requires a slightly different approach than most gems, because the color change is everything.
Evaluate it in both light sources. Any reputable jeweler will show you the stone under a daylight-equivalent lamp and an incandescent source. If the color change is weak, muddy, or barely perceptible, the stone is lower quality regardless of its other characteristics.
Saturation matters. The finest alexandrite shifts from a vivid, clean green to a vivid, clean red with no brown or gray muddiness in either direction. Stones that shift from olive-green to brownish-red are more common and considerably less valuable.
Clarity is secondary. Unlike diamonds, alexandrite is not graded on a strict clarity scale by most buyers. Minor inclusions are tolerated — and expected in natural stones — as long as they don't interfere with the color or structural integrity.
Size is rare. Most fine alexandrite on the market is under one carat. Stones above two carats with strong color change are exceptional finds. If you see a large, clean alexandrite at an unexpectedly low price, ask questions.
Ask for documentation. For any meaningful purchase, a GIA or AGL (American Gemological Laboratories) certificate is worth having. It will confirm whether the stone is natural or lab-created, identify the origin if determinable, and confirm the color-change phenomenon.
Alexandrite is a chrysoberyl — a genuinely hard and durable gem at 8.5 on the Mohs scale, just below sapphire and ruby. It doesn't require the delicate handling of pearls or opals.
Most people give a June birthday recipient pearls. Pearls are beautiful — we love them — but if you want to give something that will genuinely stop someone in their tracks, alexandrite is it. Hand someone a ring and watch their face as they walk from the window to the lamp. That moment — the double take, the "wait, did that just change color?" — is something a pearl simply cannot do.
At Gemma's Jewelers, we love helping customers find the unexpected gem — the one with a story, a history, a little magic behind it. If you're curious about alexandrite for a June birthday, an anniversary, or just because you've never seen one in person, come in and let us show you what this stone can do.
Visit us at any of our three Southern California locations — Rancho Cucamonga, Eastvale, and Mission Viejo — and we'll put an alexandrite under the light for you. Questions? Contact us here.
