Tickle Your Fancy with Fancy Color Diamonds

In 1817, R.J. Hauy, an eminent French mineralogist, wrote "Gems are the flowers of the mineral kingdom .... fancy color diamonds are the orchids." Fancy color diamonds, like orchids, are truly exotic and rare beauties of nature.

Yellows, reds, pinks, purples, blues and greens are not what you expect from diamonds. Anyone who has studied the 4 Cs can tell you, "When it comes to diamonds, the less color .... the better." While this is true, it is only true up to a point. Slight traces of color can be annoying and detract from a diamond's beauty and value. But when a diamond sparkles with brilliant, intense color, it is a gem of great rarity and beauty. These extraordinary gems are known as "fancy color diamonds."

The rarest and most valuable colored diamonds are vibrant reds. In fact, one of the highest per-carat prices ever paid for a diamond was for a purplish red stone weighing just over 0.95 carats. Sold at auction in 1987, this fiery beauty brought an astounding $926,000 per carat. More recently, a 5.11 carat red diamond is rumoured to have sold privately for $8 million. However, not all fancy color diamonds sell for such colorful prices (please excuse the pun).

Fancy color diamonds attain high values because of their great rarity and the attraction they have for gemstone collectors and connoisseurs. It has been estimated that only one out every 10,000 natural diamonds is a fancy color. Among natural colored diamonds the rarest shades are red, pink and green. More common are various shades of yellow and brown.

If a natural red diamond does not fit your budget or your color scheme, you may want to consider one of the more affordable, but equally striking alternatives. Pink diamonds from the Argyle mines in Australia are stunning when set in platinum. Yellow diamonds make striking center stones, especially when set between two smaller colorless diamonds. And purple and blue diamonds will capture you with a unique mystique all their own. While these shades are not as rare as red diamonds, they are just as beautiful and desirable.

Source: http://www.jewelryexpert.com