Summer is here, with a selection of birthstones to think about aesthetically and contextually as far as what they mean. For those looking to get summer jewelry, the two months break down to pearls, moonstones, and alexandrite for June and rubies, onyx, and turquoise for July.

Did you know that there are two types of birthstones? The two types are “modern” and “traditional”.  Sometimes the modern and traditional birthstones for a month match, and sometimes they don’t. For the month of July, both birthstones are the ruby.

Every piece of jewelry you own is precious in some way, but there are actually only 4 gemstones that are classified as precious. What are they, and what do they mean?