Pisces Birthstone: What the Traditional and Modern Lists Say

By Lisa Chen, Founder · July 12, 2026

Short answer: Pisces does not have one official birthstone, because the sign runs from about February 19 to March 20 and straddles two calendar months. If you go by the modern birth-month list, a Pisces born in February gets amethyst and a Pisces born in March gets aquamarine. The older zodiac-sign tradition is a separate layer that adds its own stones, which is exactly why the lists you find online disagree. Here is how each list is built, who standardized it, and how to pick a stone you will be happy to wear.

Why Pisces has more than one birthstone

The confusion is built into the calendar. Under the tropical zodiac the sun moves through Pisces from roughly February 19 to March 20, so a Pisces birthday lands in one of two different months — and the birthstone system most people know is organized by month, not by sign. The first question is really "which month were you born in," because a February Pisces and a March Pisces get different answers, and both are correct.

Underneath the month list sits an older layer: the tradition of assigning a stone to each zodiac sign itself. It predates the tidy monthly chart and comes from folklore rather than the jewelry trade, so stacking a month list on top of a sign tradition gives you exactly the mess you have seen online: one page says aquamarine, another amethyst, a third bloodstone. None of them is lying. They are answering different questions.

Your month stone: amethyst or aquamarine

Start with the version almost every jeweler will hand you, because it is the standardized one. According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), February's birthstone is amethyst, the purple variety of quartz. This is the rare case where the old and new lists agree, so if your Pisces birthday is in February, you can stop comparing lists: it is amethyst, full stop.

March is where it gets interesting. The GIA lists two March birthstones: aquamarine, a greenish-blue to blue variety of the mineral beryl, and bloodstone, a dark green stone flecked with red iron-oxide spots (also called heliotrope). Aquamarine is the one you see on most modern jewelry; bloodstone is the older, opaque stone the trade quietly swapped out. So a March Pisces has a choice, and the "right" answer depends on whether you follow the modern chart or the traditional one — which is worth understanding.

Traditional versus modern lists, and who wrote them

Here is the boring-but-true version, because it explains every disagreement you will run into. The birth-month list is not ancient wisdom handed down intact. According to the International Gem Society's birthstone chart, the "traditional" list most familiar in the United States took shape in Poland between the 16th and 18th centuries. Then in 1912 the American National Association of Jewelers published a standardized "modern" list that leaned toward transparent, faceted gems, partly because clear stones were easier to set together in the mothers' rings becoming popular at the time. The list jewelers publish today, through groups like the GIA and the American Gem Society, descends from that 1912 standard and is still being edited — newer additions like spinel, citrine, and tanzanite were folded in over the years.

For a Pisces, the split looks like this:

Month in the Pisces range	Traditional birthstone	Modern birthstone
February	Amethyst	Amethyst
March	Bloodstone	Aquamarine

• February. No disagreement: amethyst is both the traditional and the modern stone, so a February Pisces never has to choose.
• March. Bloodstone is the traditional stone, opaque and earthy; aquamarine is the modern one, transparent and pale blue. The "original" answer is bloodstone; the answer nearly every jewelry counter uses is aquamarine.

So "traditional" and "modern" are just two editorial decisions by the jewelry trade, not a fact you can get wrong. Pick the one whose stone you like.

The zodiac-sign stones are a different tradition

This is the layer that causes the most arguing online. Separate from the month chart, there is a much older habit of tying a stone to each zodiac sign. Because it comes from astrological and folklore sources rather than a trade body, there is no single official Pisces zodiac stone, and the lists genuinely disagree: across common ones you will see amethyst, aquamarine, and bloodstone all attached to Pisces.

I want to be straight about what this is and is not. These associations are tradition, not fact. You will read that a stone brings calm, clarity, or protection — for example, Roman sailors are said to have carried aquamarine for safe passage, and the ancient Greeks linked amethyst to sobriety. Those are real historical beliefs, lovely to know, but they are beliefs, not properties a gem actually has. Some traditions hold that your sign's stone "belongs" to you in a way a calendar stone does not, which is a nice idea if it speaks to you — but it is not something a gemologist can measure, and no reputable gem authority publishes zodiac powers as fact. So enjoy the story, and choose the stone because you like it and it suits your life.

How to actually choose your Pisces stone

Once you drop the idea that there is one correct answer, the decision gets easy.

• Go by your birth month for the mainstream answer. February means amethyst; March means aquamarine (or bloodstone for the traditional stone). This is what a jeweler assumes you mean.
• Go by the sign if the astrology matters more than the month. Amethyst and aquamarine are the two most commonly cited Pisces zodiac stones, so either keeps you inside the tradition and is easy to find in jewelry.
• Go by color if you just want something beautiful. Amethyst is purple, aquamarine pale blue, bloodstone deep green — all three are valid Pisces stones, so there is no wrong pick.
• Buying for someone else? Amethyst is the safe default. It works for any Pisces, reads instantly as "gemstone," and is affordable and durable.

What these stones are made of, and how they hold up

If you are going to wear a stone every day, hardness matters more than horoscope. Hardness is measured on the Mohs scale, a 1-to-10 ranking of scratch resistance. According to the USGS, quartz sits at 7 and beryl at 7.5 to 8. Amethyst is a quartz, so it is a 7; aquamarine is a beryl, so it is 7.5 to 8. Both are hard enough for rings, necklaces, and earrings you wear regularly, though nothing below a diamond (10) is truly scratch-proof — so store them apart from harder stones.

The bigger honesty problem when you shop for a birthstone piece is usually not the gem — it is the metal and the "stone" around it. Read a wearable piece the way you would read a food label:

• "18k gold" on an affordable piece almost always means gold-plated, not solid gold. That is a thin layer of gold over a base metal, so it can wear over time. Fine for everyday jewelry — just know you are buying a coating, not a solid-gold heirloom, and price it accordingly.
• 316L stainless steel is low-nickel-release, not nickel-free. It is a great everyday metal and a common "hypoallergenic" choice because it locks its nickel into the alloy and releases very little. But "very little" is not "none," so with a diagnosed nickel allergy the honest answer is titanium or niobium, not a blanket promise that steel is safe.
• A clear, sparkly "diamond" accent is often cubic zirconia (CZ). CZ is a lab-made diamond simulant, not a diamond — a perfectly good look for a birthstone piece, as long as the listing calls it what it is.

None of this is a knock on plated or CZ jewelry; I sell plenty of it and wear it myself. It is the same rule I apply to gemstones: buy the real thing, described honestly, at the price the real thing should cost.

A birthstone-colored piece makes a warm, personal gift or keepsake. Stylr's everyday designs are gold-plated and stainless rather than loose birthstones, but if you want the look in a piece that survives daily life, you can browse our everyday gifts collection and pick a color that matches the stone.

Frequently asked questions

What is the birthstone for Pisces?

Pisces runs from about February 19 to March 20, so it does not have one official birthstone. By the modern birth-month list, a February Pisces gets amethyst and a March Pisces gets aquamarine. The older zodiac-sign tradition most often assigns amethyst or aquamarine to the sign as well.

Is amethyst or aquamarine the "real" Pisces stone?

Both are legitimate. Amethyst is the February birthstone and a leading Pisces sign stone; aquamarine is the March birthstone and the other commonly cited sign stone. If you were born in February, amethyst is the natural pick; if March, aquamarine. Neither is more official than the other.

What is the traditional Pisces birthstone?

It depends on the month. February's traditional and modern birthstone are both amethyst. March's traditional birthstone is bloodstone, a dark green stone with red flecks, which the modern list replaced with aquamarine.

Do Pisces birthstones have real powers or meanings?

The meanings are tradition and folklore, not measurable properties. Some traditions hold that amethyst encourages clarity or that aquamarine brings calm, but no gem authority publishes these as fact. Enjoy them as history, and choose a stone for its look and durability.

Are amethyst and aquamarine durable enough for everyday jewelry?

Yes. Amethyst is a quartz at 7 on the Mohs hardness scale and aquamarine is a beryl at 7.5 to 8, both hard enough for daily rings, necklaces, and earrings. Store them separately from harder stones so they do not get scratched.

The one rule that cuts through all of it: there is no single correct Pisces stone, only the list you follow — so pick the version whose stone you like and wear it without second-guessing. If you enjoy the symbolism side of jewelry, you might also like our guides to the meaning and symbolism of turquoise and to what gold-plated jewelry really is.

If you want to wear a birthstone rather than read about one, our Personalized Cross & Birthstone Necklace is made in all twelve months — 18k gold plating over a 316L stainless steel base, built for daily wear. The stones are cubic zirconia, not mined gems, and the product page says so.