Jewels, in particular, have been adorning people’s imagination throughout generations, being symbols of the unmatched shine of the diamond. As it is, standard-issue diamonds are already wonders of creation, but some are exceedingly special and place them at the apogee of gemology. In this article, I have discussed some of the most unique and rarest diamonds that exist today in this world with the help of their characteristics and history as well as the elements that have made these diamonds so scarce.
Fear of losing these assets has made some people invest in fine arts and some of the costliest jewelry today is those made of rarest diamonds. Typically, a diamond occurs naturally and it can take up to 3 billion years in the formation process therefore it is so valuable. As noted earlier all diamonds are rare in their own way but some forms of diamonds are even rarer than the other.
In general, colored diamonds are rather scarce, and red diamonds are considered to be the scarcest among them. As far as the formations are concerned, Type II a is rarer than Type II b and the formation with the least occurrence is Type I b. Below is a clear explanation of the kind of diamonds that are rarest in the whole world.
Some of the hardest-to-find diamonds in the entire world are some of the most valuable gems that exist on the planet. These beautiful stones are rare whereby it is difficult to find specimens with them; only a few exist in the world.
They are usually identified in a number of mines at any particular time and their worth cannot be accorded to their usability but rather their rarity and attractiveness. In this article we will look at six of the world’s rarest diamonds and how they can command such high prices.
Table of Contents
The Pink Star Diamond
Pink Star is not just one of the rarest diamonds in the market but a record-breaking wonder of diamond markets around the world. This 59, 60-carat pink diamond is famous for its unbelievable hue which is marked as Fancy Vivid Pink or FFVP, which is the highest quality degree for pink stones. Also, where it was found in South Africa by the De Beers Group in 1999, this record diamond went through a rigorous process of cutting and polishing to unearth its stunning shade and brilliance.
The one thing that puts the Pink Star in a league of its own is its size. That is why pink diamonds of such size are extremely rarest diamonds. Therefore, the color and size of the Pink Star make it historically costly in terms of the auction price which reached $71. 2 million in 2017. This sale reiterated how rare the Pink Star was and the new record that it offered to the diamond market.
Still, it is impossible to ignore the beauty of pink diamonds which are rather romantic and feminine. As mentioned above the intense fancy pinks are very less in number contrastingly to faint pinks, they are more easily accessible. Greater than 90 percent of the pink diamonds that are found across the globe are mined in Australia from the Argyle Diamond Mine.
The Hope Diamond
The Hope Diamond is one of the largest, most valuable, and rarest diamonds, whose blue color has attracted so much attention in addition to the many owners and mysteries associated with its story. Weighing approximately 45. 52 carats, it is a Deep blue color, the color is best described as Fancy Dark Grayish Blue. This is because of the small hint of boron that exists in the diamond which also causes this diamond to give out a special fluorescence when exposed to ultra-violet light.
It can therefore be said that the history of Hope Diamond is quite colorful. Some of its reported sources include the mines in Golconda in India which produced some of the largest and rarest diamonds in the world. The diamond has a long history; it was bought by King Louis XIV of France; the diamond was stolen during the French Revolution and later brought to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Hope Diamond is in the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C now, and it has passed through Hyderabad India to France, Great Britain, and the United States before the diamond went on display to the public. By many people, it has been acclaimed as the world’s most famous diamond.
The Cullinan Diamond
Found in 1905 in South Africa, the Cullinan diamond is the biggest and rarest diamond that has ever been found, and in its raw form, weighed 3,106 carats. It attracted so much attention in the gemological world due to its size and clarity. This has then proceeded to be cut into several gemstones, and the biggest cut was named the Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa which has 530. 2 carats. This gem is set in the head of the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross, a piece of the British Crown Jewels.
The Cullinan II also referred to as the Lesser Star of Africa is a 317. and there are 4 carats and these diamonds are put in the Imperial State Crown. A brief history of the cutting and setting process of the Cullinan Diamond plus the size make this gemstone absolutely unique and rarest diamond in the market.
It was given to the king on the 9th of November, 1907 on his sixty-sixth birthday at Sandringham House by the Agent-General of the colony, Sir Richard Solomon, amidst a number of guests such as Queen of Sweden, Queen of Spain, Duke of Westminster and Lord Revelstoke.
As requested, the colonial secretary Lord Elgin made the proclamation on behalf of the king that the king accepted the gift on behalf of himself and his generations and promised that ‘this great and unique diamond shall be safe and preserved among the historic jewels which form the treasures of the crown’. King Edward named the bigger diamond the Great Star of Africa while the small diamond was named the Smaller Star of Africa
The Red Diamond
A red diamond is a diamond that has a red color and is chemically, physically, and optically the same as a colorless diamond. But it is a fact that a red diamond is the biggest and the rarest diamond color in the whole wide world and even more than the pink and blue ones because few of them can be seen.
Red diamonds are considered to be among the top in the list of the natural-colored rarest diamonds, with only a few of them around the world. These diamonds are extremely rare and they are ranked among the world’s rarest gemstones or even rarest of them all. Red is actually coming from some certain kind of distorted lattice structure of the crystals and the phenomenon is still not totally clear to the scientists.
One of the famous red diamonds are Moussaieff Red Diamond which is rated 5. 11 total carats, and all of those fancy colored stones fall under the category of fancy Red. A deep rich red color and the simple lack of such stones have a great effect to increase its value. The Moussaieff Red is one of the most prominent examples of the rarest diamond, having been featured in numerous exhibitions and studies.
The Green Diamond
The Dresden Green Diamond also called Dresden Green, is a 41 carat 8. 2 g, natural green diamond gemstone that is found in mines in India. The Dresden Green is a diamond of Type IIa, clarity of VS1, and there are reports of the fact that this diamond has not undergone the recutting process and it’s potentially fully internal flawless which makes it one of the rarest diamonds.
There are very few natural green diamonds that are found in the market, this is because of how they are formed. They said it is a green color that is formed due to radiation exposure of the diamond for millions of years which actually alters the structure of the diamond crystal. These diamonds are often categorized into two types: All the greens they saw were divided into two major classes; the natural green and the artificially irradiated green. The natural greens are worth so much more, and people do not get them as often.
The Dresden Green Diamond is considered the rarest diamond and it is about 41 carats in size and has a very deep green hue. The Dresden Green has a rich history since before it became a royal possession, it belonged to the Saxon dukes, and was shown in the Green Treasury of the Dresden Castle. It is therefore very rare in its existence in history and stands out in color from any other.
The Blue Moon Diamond
Blue Moon of Josephine is 12.03 carat (2. 406 g) blue diamond that is graded flawless and was mined in January 2014 in South Africa and sold at Sotheby’s sale in Geneva in November 2015 which set a record for such stones at $48. 4 million (43. 2 million Swiss francs plus fees). This rarest diamond is the bigger cushion-shaped blue stone classified as the “fancy vivid” that has ever been put for sale at the auction.
The Blue Moon Diamond is yet another instance of a cut diamond that is the rarest in the world. Weighing 12. 03 carats, this diamond is also categorized as fancy vivid blue and there is clarity in the diamond. Found in South Africa, this is perhaps one of the few blue diamonds that were found in the world. They sold the diamond for forty-eight dollars. 4 million in 2015, which made it the largest blue diamond auction on this planet.
The Blue Moon stands out not only with its deep color but also due to its size which puts it at the top of the list of rare diamonds. Its sale price considers not only its relative rarity but the enhancement of the overall demand for colored rarest diamonds in the market.
Factors Contributing to Diamond Rarity
There are several factors that contribute to the uniqueness of the rarest diamonds
Color:
The saturation and shade of a diamond’s color play a huge role in determining whether the diamond is rare or not. Diamonds that are fancy or vividly colored like pink, blue, red, or green are exceptionally rare and very much in demand.
Size:
Size contributes to the beauty of the rarest diamonds. Big stones, especially those beyond normal sizes are scarce. What has equally been achieved is the ability to source a diamond of great size and then cut it to enhance or reveal more of its size without necessarily compromising its quality.
Clarity:
Nobody can expect to get a diamond that has few external or internal inclusions. Clarity is also another characteristic of the rarest diamonds; whereby high clarity grades are relevant not only to the diamonds’ quality but also to their scarcity and thus value.
Provenance:
From the previous points, we can deduce that extra factors such as history itself as well as the diamond’s journey through history can increase the rarity and therefore the value of the diamond. People tend to value diamonds more if it has a history of talking more about them or even if it was once owned by royalty. Rarest diamonds usually have a rich and exciting history.
Market Demand:
It also has to do with rarity and the specific market and collector’s market of diamonds. This makes it more appealing for buyers to look for such gems hence increasing its value and making it a gem in the market.
Conclusion
It’s a world as incredible as it is difficult to cover: the world of rare diamonds. They vary from the magnificent Pink Star Diamond to the legendary appeal of the Hope Diamond; every one of them has a story to tell, be it of rarity, beauty, or even value. It is through these extraordinary colors, the remarkable size, and the legendary past that these diamonds continue to remain examples of the enchantment of the world and man with one of the most valuable materials – the diamond. This rarity does not cease to amaze and impress even in the present time making them some of the most desired and valuable gemstones in the world.
FAQs about Rarest Diamond
Listed below are the FAQs people often ask about the rarest diamond:
Q1. What is the rarest diamond in the world?
Red diamonds are classified as the rarest and among some of the most expensive diamonds in the whole world. They are also known as the Fancy Reds, which are of different hues such as orange-red, brownish-red, and so on. Most of the red diamonds are mined in the Argyle Diamond Mine which is located in Australia.
Q2. What is the most valuable diamond?
Moreover, the website has an incredibly large size and weighs as much as 105. According to recent data, an oval cut diamond is still the costliest one in the world which costs 6ct. Of great interest and enshrouded in mystery and legend it is believed to have originated from India during the early part of the fourteenth century.
Q3. What is the No 1 diamond in the world?
Koh-i-Noor is the name of the diamond and translates as ‘Mountain of Light’, and it can easily be dubbed the most famous priceless diamond in the world. It once weighed about 793 carats and because of the cutting and polishing of centuries, it has been brought down to what it is today a 105. 6-carat gem.
Q4. What is 1000x times rarer than a diamond?
Tanzanite. The tanzanite which is a blue-green colored stone was discovered in Tanzania, a small East African country, in the year 1967 and it is as rare as the diamond- in fact, it is 1000 times rarer than a diamond. It is closely related to the mineral zoisite and can be found only in the area of the mountain foothills of Kilimanjaro.
Q5. Who owns the Koh-i-noor diamond?
The Koh-i-Noor diamond is currently among the most sought-after and debated gemstones in the globe and it forms the British Crown Jewels today. It is situated in the so-called Queen Mother’s Crown which is exhibited in the Tower of London. The ownership of the diamond has always raised controversies owing to certain controversies that surrounded it.
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