Anniversary Gemstones by Year

Anniversary gemstones by year are a jewelers' custom that gives each wedding anniversary a stone: garnet for the second, sapphire for the fifth, diamond for the tenth, ruby for the fifteenth and fortieth, and so on. There is no official list. The chart below follows the one compiled by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), which says so itself.

Anniversary gemstones by year: the chart

The GIA list does not cover the years between these later milestones.

To see the traditional and modern gifts for a year next to its ideas, use the tool.

Is there an official list of anniversary gemstones?

No. The GIA published its list in 2016 with a plain caution: "There is no single authoritative wedding anniversary gemstone list." It built its own from similar lists in circulation. Charts from different jewelers match on the famous years, such as ruby at forty, and can differ elsewhere.

That is worth knowing before you worry about getting it "right." If a jeweler's chart shows a different stone for your year, neither chart is wrong.

Where did gemstone lists come from?

The first anniversary lists had almost no gems in them. In the 19th century the named anniversaries were paper, wooden, tin, silver and golden weddings, with a diamond wedding at sixty or seventy-five years.

Gems entered in two steps. According to TIME, a reference book of 1910 already filled the years from thirty to forty-five with pearl, coral, emerald and ruby. Then the American jewelry trade took an interest: the American National Retail Jewelers Association discussed the anniversaries at a meeting in 1922, and the uniform list it produced over the following years put heavy emphasis on precious stones and metals.

A gem for every single year, including the early ones that the traditional list gives to paper and cotton, is the later development of that trade interest. It is a custom made by sellers. That does not make a stone a worse gift, but it explains why nobody can point to an original, binding version.

How the gem list compares with the gift lists

The gem list and the traditional and modern gift lists overlap in places and part ways in others.

• They agree at ten years (diamond, with the modern list), thirty (pearl), forty (ruby), forty-five (sapphire) and sixty (diamond).
• They differ at thirty-five years, where the gift lists give coral or jade and the GIA gives emerald, and at fifty-five, where the gift lists give emerald and the GIA gives alexandrite.
• They keep the metal at twenty-five and fifty years, where silver and gold are too well established to replace.

In the early years the choice is between a material and a stone: paper or gold for the first, cotton or garnet for the second, wood or sapphire for the fifth.

Which anniversary stones suit everyday wear?

Hardness matters if the gift is a ring that will be worn daily. These figures on the Mohs scale are from the GIA's birthstone pages.

A softer stone is not a bad choice. It simply belongs in a setting that takes fewer knocks.

How to choose an anniversary stone

• Start with the person. A stone in a color they wear beats the stone assigned to the year.
• Consider their birthstone. It is often more personal. Our birthstones by month chart lists all twelve.
• Ask about treatments. Many gems are heated, filled or dyed. Sellers should tell you, and for an expensive stone a laboratory report settles it.
• Think small. One small stone set in a band or a pendant marks the year as well as a large one.

Whatever properties tradition gives a stone, such as ruby for passion or sapphire for loyalty, they are folklore. Choose for beauty and for meaning to the two of you.

For the names of the milestone years, see wedding anniversary names.