What are Natural Fancy Color Diamonds?
WHAT ARE NATURAL FANCY COLOR DIAMONDS?
Natural fancy color diamonds are known for their magnificent beauty. They can be found in almost every color under the sun, including pinks, champagnes, violet, yellows, greens, blues, oranges and reds. Volcanic eruptions bring these wonderful gems to the surface of the Earth where they are mined, processed, traded and appreciated all over the world.
Unlike colorless diamonds, natural fancy color diamonds are extremely rare. It would be virtually impossible to come across two that are identical. Even a matching pair of natural fancy color diamond earrings will usually be comprised of two non-identical stones that simply look alike.
HOW DO NATURAL FANCY COLOR DIAMONDS GET THEIR COLOR?
Every diamond is composed of a unique combination of chemical elements, which dictate its color and therefor it’s rarity, value and desirability. All fancy colored diamonds follow the same color grading scale: Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, and Fancy Vivid. As the intensity of the stone’s color increases, so does its value.
HOW RARE ARE NATURAL FANCY COLOR DIAMONDS?
More than 250 tons of ore needs to be crushed and processed to yield just one carat of rough gem- quality diamond
Only one rough diamond in a million weighs one carat or more
Only one in 10,000 diamonds has a fancy color
Blue diamonds are exceptionally rare, comprising only around 0.0001% of the world’s diamonds, according to Christie’s.
There are approximately 110 million carats of diamonds mined each year and only 2,000 carats will end up as cut and polished colored
The Argyle mine in Australia mines 30 million carats per year, and less than 590 are jewelry
Less than one tenth of 1% are pink diamonds, and out of this tiny amount, only a handful are investment-quality
The Argyle mine in Australia produces over 90% of the world’s pink diamonds, and out of the 30 million carats of rough diamonds mined there every year, less than 10,000 are The mine is scheduled to close in 2020, giving experts cause to believe prices will skyrocket.
EVALUATING NATURAL FANCY COLORED DIAMONDS ( NFCD)
COLOR
The characteristic of color is the most important of the 4Cs when it comes to evaluating natural fancy colored diamonds. The more visible and vibrant the color of the diamond, the more rare and valuable it usually is. As saturated color creates value, fancy cuts are preferred because they intensify the stone’s color. The most popular fancy cuts are: princess, pear, cushion, heart, radiant, emerald and oval.
COLOR INTENSITY
Each color diamond is graded for its color intensity from the faintest of shades to the most intense. Fancy color diamond intensity levels are as follows, from lowest to highest: Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Deep, and Fancy Dark.