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The incredibly colors of famous and equally Diamonds
Out of all colored diamonds, red is the scarcest of all. The famous “Hancock Red” sold in the late 1980s for over $800,000 which gave it the record at the time for the highest price paid per carat.
So, an interested buyer might ask, how do colored diamonds get their hues and why are they worth more than colorless ones? Well, all diamonds get their color through the various chemical processes that take place while under the pressures of carbon crystallization that take more than millions of years to complete. In fact, it should be noted that scientists and even many gemologists insist that there are few to no “colorless” diamonds. There are roughly 300 shades of naturally colored diamonds recorded, and they range from “white” to “black”, and everywhere in between. The reason a diamond acquires a higher price tag because of its color has to do with the scarcity of its occurrence. Consider that among the world’s most famous diamonds are colored stones, in fact some of history’s most discussed, highly valued and notable diamonds are the colored stones:
The incredibly famous and equally notorious “Hope Diamond” is a deep-blue sapphire colored diamond currently housed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. It is known for its size, color and quality as well as its “colored” history full of legend and curses.
Red carpet watchers and movie fans might easily recognize the “Pumpkin Diamond”: a vivid orange five and a half carat stone set for actress Halle Berry who wore it the night of her Academy Award win for Best Actress. The stone’s color is so truly unique that it is currently valued at over $3 million.
No list of super-valuable and super-famous diamonds can be considered to be complete without a mention of the “Tiffany Diamond”, a 129 carat cushion shape diamond. It is a canary yellow diamond, and while white diamonds with a yellow hue tend to be of lower value, the intensity of the coloration of the “Tiffany Diamond” makes it incredibly valuable both for color and size.
Interestingly, the largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was a natural color diamond of pale brown, the “Uncle Sam Diamond” located in what is now the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. The 40 carat stone was emerald-cut in 1971 and sold for approximately $150,000. Another diamond, of the yellow variety, was found in the same location and worn to the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton by his wife Hillary Clinton. This diamond is on permanent display in the Park’s museum.
The “Green Dresden” is a truly green diamond, which is incredibly rare. This alone, apart from size makes it astonishingly valuable. The stone is also special because of its treatment; it was cut and polished, although such a process often diminishes such a stone’s green tones. The “Green Dresden” however retains a remarkably distinct green coloration. It was taken by the Soviets at the end of World War II, but returned in 1958. Today it is housed in the Albertinium Museum in Dresden.
Though black is usually described in terms of an absence of color, the largest black diamond in the world is considered a colored stone. It is known as the “Spirit of de Grisogono”, and is believed to be the world’s fifth largest diamond overall. It weighs 312 carats and is set in a white gold ring with 702 smaller white diamonds surrounding it.
Anyone interested in acquiring a colored diamond should be wary of purchasing from any dealer who is selling at seriously discounted prices. There are now ways in which colorless or white diamonds can be altered in a laboratory setting. These are not valuable in the sense of the naturally colored stones and are best avoided. The popularity of colored diamonds is making prices rise, not decline, and a low price may be an indicator of fraud.
