February Birthstone
February's stone is amethyst, the purple form of quartz — and its story is one of the great plot twists in gem history. For most of recorded time amethyst ranked among the 'cardinal gems' beside diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald, reserved for royalty and clergy and priced accordingly. Then the 19th century uncovered enormous Brazilian deposits, and the king of purple became the people's gem: the same regal color, suddenly affordable to anyone.
That makes February arguably the best-value month on the chart — a stone with genuine royal pedigree, rich color, excellent hardness for jewelry, and prices that let you buy it big. Here's what amethyst actually is, which purple counts as 'February purple,' the drinking legend behind its name, and what separates ordinary stones from collection-grade ones.
The February birthstone
What color is the February birthstone?
The February birthstone color is purple — anywhere from pale lilac to deep violet, with the classic chart shade being a rich medium purple. The most valued color in the trade is a deep, evenly saturated purple flashing red and blue highlights, historically tied to Siberian material and still called 'Siberian' grade regardless of origin.
Lighter stones have their own market under the name Rose de France, and the pale-to-deep spread means February jewelry can whisper or shout at the same modest price. If matching the chart: aim for the confident middle purple, not the palest lavender.
How February got its birthstone
The name is a warning label: Greek amethystos means 'not drunk,' from the belief that the stone protected its wearer from intoxication — Greeks and Romans drank from amethyst cups and wore it to banquets as insurance. The wine-colored gem of sobriety became, in Christian Europe, the bishop's stone, set in ecclesiastical rings as a symbol of piety and clear-headedness, and it glitters through royal regalia from Egypt to the British crown jewels.
Until about 1800 amethyst traded as a cardinal gem at ruby-class prices, its supply trickling from Russia's Ural mountains and a few older sources. The discovery of vast deposits in Brazil (and later Uruguay and Zambia) collapsed the price and democratized the color — one of the clearest examples in gem history of supply, not beauty, setting value. It has held February on every list, ancient and modern, without interruption.
Choosing & caring for February birthstones
Color is nearly everything: deep, even saturation with red-blue flashes ('Siberian' grade) commands the top of the range; visible color zoning (pale and dark patches face-up) is the most common flaw to check by rotating the stone in light. African material (Zambia) tends darker and bluer, Brazilian brighter and lighter — preference, not hierarchy. Eye-clean stones are the norm, so pay less for visible inclusions. Watch for synthetic amethyst (widely produced, cheap, hard to detect without a lab — buy from sellers who state natural origin) and for 'green amethyst,' which is heated amethyst properly called prasiolite. Uruguayan geode fragments and Veracruz crystals are the collector's corner.
Frequently asked questions
What is the February birthstone?
Amethyst — the purple variety of quartz, and one of the few stones to hold its month on every list, traditional and modern, without ever being challenged or joined by a second stone.
What color is the February birthstone?
Purple — from pale lilac to deep violet. The chart shade is a rich medium purple; the trade's most prized grade is deep, even purple with red and blue flashes, traditionally called 'Siberian.'
Why is amethyst associated with sobriety?
The name comes from Greek amethystos, 'not drunk' — the ancients believed the wine-colored stone prevented intoxication, so they wore it to banquets and carved drinking cups from it. The legend carried into Christian symbolism, making it the clergy's stone of clear-headed piety.
Is amethyst valuable?
It's the best value on the birthstone chart: genuinely historic, genuinely beautiful, and affordable because 19th-century Brazilian discoveries made supply abundant. Ordinary stones cost little; deep 'Siberian'-grade color, large clean sizes and fine geode specimens carry real premiums — but nothing like the cardinal-gem prices it commanded before 1800.
How is citrine related to amethyst?
Same mineral, different trace chemistry — and heat converts one into the other: warm amethyst to around 400–500°C and it turns golden, which is the origin of most commercial citrine (November's stone). Nature occasionally does both in one crystal, producing the bicolor purple-and-gold ametrine.
See the full birthstones-by-month chart or jump to April, August, December, January, July, June, March, May, November, October, September.
Last updated 2026-07-19