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Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2008 - 21:15:22 |
You never used to see colored diamonds, but today they are quite the fashionable stone. The fabulous stones you read about in the papers are all priced way out of the average person's price range, but you could still get one.
Gemologists have found a way to make less desirable stones look better than they really are, and this makes them much less expensive than a better quality stone, but it will make them look as good as the more expensive diamonds.
The stones are treated with irradiation and that is followed intense heat. This makes brownish or yellowish stones look like beautifully colored stones that are much more affordable.
The color this process creates is permanent unless the stones are put under high heat, but that usually will not happen. The process creates green, blue, yellow, red, purple and a few other colored diamonds.
Irradiation makes it easier for more people to own these beautiful colored diamonds, since natural colored diamonds are very rare, and very expensive. If you are out shopping and decide to look at colored diamonds make sure to ask if the stones have been treated. Also make sure to ask where the stone originated from and ask to see a laboratory certificate so you can verify it is authentic.
If you want a colored diamond but find the treated stones are more than you can afford you may want to look at some synthetic colored diamonds. These stones are created in a laboratory and can be found in many price ranges, all lower than the stones that are natural.
The different colored diamonds get their color from trace elements in the stones. Different elements cause a stone to be different colors. Yellow diamonds contain nitrogen. A natural diamond's color can also be affected by the inclusions or flaws in the stone itself. Some inclusions can give a diamond unique color tones and brilliant flashes of color in the stone.
A natural diamond that has color is called a fancy diamond. The colors of a fancy diamond can vary from red, green, purple, violet, orange, blue and pink, and many shades between depending on the faint to intense color of each stone.
Among the world's most famous colored diamonds are some you have probably heard of.
The Tiffany Diamond is one of the largest fancy yellow diamonds ever to have been found. It weighed 287.42 carats in 1878 when it was discovered in South Africa and was then cut into a rectangular or cushion shape stone of 128.54. It was cut with 90 facets, and that is 32 more facets than a regular round diamond has. These extra facets maximize the brilliance of this fabulous stone.
The Hope Diamond is the largest deep blue diamond and is more than one billion years old. It was found in what is now known as India. It was found in the early 1600's and has a long history of owners. It has been stolen, and then recovered, it has been sold several times and it has been re-cut. It is 45.52 carats and is owned by the National Museum of Natural History.
Fancy colored diamonds never decrease in value. The blue and pink varieties have doubled every five years in a strong economy. If you had purchased a very high quality blue stone in the 1970's for $50,000.00, it would now be worth between $2,000,000.00 and $3,000,000.00.
Your irradiated diamond will never be worth that much, but it will look just as fabulous on your hand, or neck and you will get compliment after compliment on it.
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