Famous Diamonds

The Hope

Among the most well known diamonds is the Hope. This 45.52 carat steel blue diamond is currently on display at the Smithsonian. The legends of the ill-fortune and curse bestowed on the possessor of the Hope Diamond are many. This diamond was donated to the Smithsonian in 1958. The Hope was originally a rather flat, blocky 110-carat rough.

 

Dresden Green

 The Dresden Green stands out among the natural colored diamonds. It is the largest green diamond in the world weighing 40.70 carats. This diamond is historic, large and has a natural green color with a slight blue overtone. These facts make it virtually priceless.

 

Conde Pink

The Conde Pink is a pear shaped and weighs 9.01 carats. This pink diamond was once owned by Louis XIII.

Tiffany Yellow

The Tiffany Yellow diamond a beautiful canary-yellow octahedron weighing 287.42 in the rough carats discovered in either 1877 or 1878 in South Africa. The gem after cutting boasts the extraordinary weight of 128.54 carats. And until recently, was the largest golden-yellow in the world.

Mountain of Light

The Koh-I-Noor (Mountain of Light) is now among the British Crown Jewels. This diamond weighs 105.60 carats. First mentioned in 1304, it is believed to have been once set in Shah Jehan‘s famous peacock throne as one of the peacocks eyes.



The Agra

The Agra is graded as a naturally colored Fancy Light Pink and weighs 32.34 carats. It was sold for about 6.9 million in 1990. Since this sale, it has been modified to a cushion shape weighing about 28.15 carats.





 Transvaal Blue

The Transvaal Blue is pear cut. This blue diamond weighs 25 carats. It was found in the Premier Diamond Mine in Transvaal, South Africa.









 Great Chrysanthemum

The Great Chrysanthemum was discovered in the summer of 1963, in a South African diamond field. This 198.28 carat fancy brown diamond appeared to be a light honey color in its rough state. However, after cutting, it proved to be a rich golden brown, with overtones of sienna and burnt orange.



Taylor-Burton

The Taylor-Burton Diamond is a pear-shaped 69.42 carat diamond. Cartier of New York purchased this diamond at an auction in 1969 and christened it "Cartier." The next day Richard Burton bought the diamond for Elizabeth Taylor. He renamed it the "Taylor-Burton”. In 1978, Elizabeth Taylor put the diamond up for sale. Prospective buyers had to pay $2,500 each to view the diamond to cover the costs of showing it. Finally, in June of 1979, the diamond was sold for nearly $3 million dollars.

The One In A Million

When you walk into a jewellery store and see all the diamonds in all of the various settings that are for sale, it is difficult to realize that diamonds are indeed rare. Most people don’t even stop to consider how that diamond came to be sitting in that jeweller’s case! There is quite a bit of work that is done before a diamond is ready to sell to the general public!

For every one million diamonds that are mined, only one will be found that is a quality one carat diamond. In order to find a two carat diamond, about five million diamonds must be mined. More than two hundred tons of ore must be mined to find one small diamond, and even then, more than 80% of the diamonds that are mined are only good for industrial use, such as diamond drill bits.

So, the next time you visit your local jewellery store, ask to see the one carat diamonds. You should look at this diamond with new appreciation – knowing that it truly is one in a million!

Fancy and Coloured Diamonds

The most famous diamonds in the world are coloured, or fancy, diamonds. The Tiffany Diamond, which is yellow, and the Hope Diamond which is blue, are coloured diamonds. Coloured diamonds vary from red, green, purple, violet, orange, blue and pink – and most shades between. Fancy colour shades vary from faint to intense.

Treated and Synthetic Diamonds

Fancy coloured diamonds are all the rage these days. Gemologists have developed new ways to create versions that are affordable for the average person - by treating less desirable diamonds. These less desirable diamonds are treated with irradiation followed by intense heat. This turns brown and yellowish diamonds into beautifully coloured diamonds that you can afford. This produces stunning greens, blues, yellows, reds, purples and other colours. These colours are considered permanent, but there is a possibility they could change during repairs if a high heat is used.

Treatments like irradiation make it possible for more people to own these vividly coloured diamonds. Most natural coloured diamonds are rare and also extremely expensive. When shopping for coloured diamonds you need to assume that any affordable fancy colour diamond has been treated. Ask about the stone's origin and request to view a lab certificate to verify authenticity.

Synthetic coloured diamonds are another option if owning a coloured diamond is something you desire but cannot quite afford. They are real diamonds, but they are created in a lab.

Natural Diamonds
Natural fancy colour diamonds get their colouring from different trace elements present in the stones, such as nitrogen, which produces a yellow diamond. Diamonds can be coloured by exposure to radiation during its creation. An example of a diamond affected by radiation is the green coloured diamond.

Another way that a natural coloured diamond gets colour is by its inclusions. Regarded as flaws and undesirable in a colourless diamond, inclusions give unique tones and brilliant flashes of colour in a fancy colour diamond. Remember that natural fancy coloured diamonds are very expensive, any coloured diamond labeled to be sold as natural should be accompanied by a certificate from a respected grading lab.

Coloured diamonds have an amazing financial track record. The value has never decreased on wholesale level in more than 30 years. Blue and pink diamonds have doubled every 5 years of a strong economy. In the 1970’s you could have bought a very high quality blue diamond for about 50K and today the very same stone would be worth between 2 and 3 million.

Diamond Mines Around the World

Argye mine located in the Kimberley region in the far north east of Western Australia. Owned by Rio Tinto, this mine is the world’s largest single producer of volume of diamonds. However, due to low proportion of quality diamonds it is not the value leader. It does produce 90-95% of the world’s supply of pink diamonds.

Diavik is also owned by Rio Tinto, located in Canada, it is a very large mine. It is located north of Yellowknife and south of the Artic Circle on an island. The island is connected by an ice road. It is also an important part of the regions economy employing more than 700 people and producing more than 8 million carats annually.

Ekati diamond mine is owned by BHP Billiton and located south of the Artic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The Ekati is Canada’s first operational diamond mine. Diamonds mined here are sold under the Aurias trade name. Authenticity is verified through CanadaMark service. CanadaMark service is also owned by BHP Billiton Diamonds, Inc.

Baken diamond mine is located along the lower Orange River in South Africa. It is owned and operated by Trans Hex. The average size stone for 2004 was 1.29 carats. In 2004, this mine produced a 78.9 carat D color flawless diamond that sold for more than 1.8 million US dollars, as well as a 27.67 pink diamond that was sold for over 1 million US dollars.

Merlin is the second of only two diamond mines in Australia. It was once owned by Rio Tinto and sold to Striker Resources, and subsequently became North Australian Diamonds.

Orapa is the world’s largest diamond mine. It us located 240 Km west of Francistown. The mine is owned by Debswana, which is a partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana. This mine operates 7 days a week. It maintains pre-primary and primary schools for its employee’s children. There is also a 100 bed hospital and game park. This mine began production in 1971 and is the oldest mine owned by the Debswana Company.

The Premier mine located in Cullinan, South Africa produced the largest diamond, the Cullinan Diamond, ever in 1905. The rough Cullinan Diamond weighed 3,106.75 carats (no. 17 in photo). The famous Hope Diamond, 44 carats, (no. 11) is small compared to the Cullinan Diamond.

This mine also produced the Golden Jubilee diamond which weighed 545.67 carats. This mine is formally owned by the De Beers Company and was renamed The Cullinan Diamond Mine in 2003 in celebration of its centennial. It was sold to Petra Diamonds in November 2007.

Recently, in September 2009, yet another giant 507 carat white diamond was discovered in the Cullinan mine.

Diamond Colour

Most diamonds are in the shades of pale yellow to brown due to impurities and defects within the diamonds' crystal lattice. Hue and intensity are the main properties of diamond colour that will determine its value. These colors vary from red, green, purple, violet, orange, blue and pink – and most shades between. Fancy color shades vary from faint to intense. Natural blue and red diamonds are worth significantly more as they are very rare. Extremely pure white diamonds are also of very high value due to rarity.

White Diamonds

White diamonds are the most common type of diamond. These diamonds range from colourless to pale yellow and are graded on a D to Z scale from high to low value, D being colourless and Z being light yellow. The purer a diamond is, the whiter it appears to be under white light.

A 100% pure diamond is completely colourless, feels cold to the touch (of course, provided that it has not been under the spotlight in the display case for hours), and is simply captivating - almost like a kind of solitary emptiness that has manifested itself through Mother Nature's strive for perfection.

Treated and Synthetic Diamonds

Fancy colored diamonds are all the rage these days. Gemologists have developed new ways to create versions that are affordable for the average person - by treating less desirable diamonds. These less desirable diamonds are treated with irradiation followed by intense heat. This turns brown and yellowish diamonds into beautifully colored diamonds that you can afford. This treatment produces stunning greens, blues, yellows, reds, purples and other colors. The colors are considered permanent, but there is a possibility they could change during repairs if a high heat is used.

Treatments like irradiation make it possible for more people to own these vividly colored diamonds. Most natural colored diamonds are rare and also extremely expensive. When shopping for colored diamonds, you need to assume that any affordable fancy color diamond has been treated. Ask about the stone's origin and request to view a lab certificate to verify authenticity.

Synthetic colored diamonds are another option if owning a colored diamond is something you desire but cannot quite afford. They are real diamonds, but they are created in a lab.

Natural Coloured Diamonds
Natural fancy color diamonds get their coloring from different trace elements present in the stones, such as nitrogen, which produces a yellow diamond. Diamonds can be colored by exposure to radiation during its creation. An example of a diamond affected by radiation is a green diamond.

Another way that a natural colored diamond gets color is by its inclusions. Regarded as flaws and undesirable in a colorless diamond, inclusions give unique tones and brilliant flashes of color in a fancy color diamond. Remember that natural colored diamonds are very expensive, any colored diamond labeled to be sold as natural should be accompanied by a certificate from a respected grading lab.

Famous Diamonds
The most famous diamonds in the world are color diamonds. The Tiffany Diamond, which is yellow and the Hope Diamond which is blue are colored diamonds. Color diamonds have an amazing financial track record. The value has never decreased on wholesale level in more than 30 years. Blue and pink diamonds have doubled every 5 years of a strong economy. In the 1970’s you could have bought a very high quality blue diamond for about 50K and today the very same stone would be worth between 2 and 3 million.