Fancy Colored Diamonds

History of Colored Diamonds

Throughout history colored diamonds were mainly worn by royalty, celebrities and wealthy aristocrats. Today, these rare creations of nature appeal to a much broader audience of jewelry connoisseurs. Many attribute this increase in popularity to celebrities wearing colored diamonds at prestigious award ceremonies such as the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

Causes of Color Diamonds

Yellow Diamonds

The most common fancy colors in diamonds are yellow and brown. This can be attributed to the presence of nitrogen within the crystal structure.

Blue Diamonds

Blue diamonds are extremely rare and they get their color from the presence of boron in the crystal structure of the diamond.

Pink Diamonds

The color of pink diamonds can be attributed to two different causes. One is internal graining (which is a structural characteristic within the diamond) that reflects pink. These grain lines run parallel within the diamond. The closer they are together the higher the saturation of pink is. The second cause of pink diamond at the current time is still unknown.

Green Diamonds

The cause of green diamonds is naturally occurring low level radiation from the ground. The radiation actually modifies the structure of the carbon atoms and make the diamond show green (Don’t worry if you own one it’s probably not still radioactive!).

Colored Diamond Prices

The prices on colored diamonds vary greatly on a number of different factors. Generally speaking the higher the color saturation the rarer the diamond and greater the price will be. Clarity is a much less important factor in determining the prices of colored diamonds.

The GIA breaks down the color saturation into Fancy, Fancy Intense and Fancy Vivid Grades. The prices per carat increase radically when you get to the rarer colors. It’s not uncommon for diamonds in the same saturation grade to have significant differences in the price per carat. This is because some Fancy colors can border the next highest saturation grade and might have just missed being called Intense or Vivid. In the diamond trade we assign each grades a number from 1-10. For example, if one dealer is talking to another and he says, “I need an Intense and it’s got to be at least an eight”. The supplier knows that the diamond better be a really good Intense color or borderline Vivid or the end customer won’t like it. This saves the diamond trade a lot of time by being able to narrow down to the right stone.

The next factor in price when it comes to Colored Diamonds is secondary colors. For example, in Pink diamonds a brownish-pink is much less desirable than a straight pink. And, a reddish-pink would be extraordinarily rare and command an unbelievably high premium over a straight pink. The variations are too many to list them all. But at least you have a general idea how the pricing structure is arrived at.

If you require more information on colored diamonds please don’t hesitate to email us directly at service@jrdunn.com.