Tag Archives: gemstones

Are you looking for a unique twist to the traditional diamond? Then, we have just the stone for you, no matter what your favorite color is. Read on to learn more about fancy color diamonds! About The Fancy Color Diamond According to GIA, a diamond falls under the category of fancy color if it is yellow or brown beyond the GIA D-Z color grading scale or diamonds that exhibit any other color face-up. This includes colors like red, green, blue, pink, and even black. If you’ve read our post about the four C’s of diamonds, you’ll know that white diamonds typically fetch a higher price. However, the opposite is true of Fancy Color Diamonds. The stronger that color is, the more valuable the gem will be. However, if you want more bang for your buck on a fancy, go for a yellow or brown. They aren’t as “desirable” as some other colors, but they sparkle just as much! Famous Fancies The world’s most famous diamond, The Hope Diamond, is a fancy color diamond. It’s a 45.52-carat diamond, and its color has been most recently described as fancy dark grayish-blue. It has a storied history spanning back to the late 1600s. Famous owners of this gem include Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV. It is on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C today. The Black Orlov diamond is another well-known fancy, with a history as dark as the stone itself. Some say the diamond is cursed — it’s even rumored to be responsible for three suicides throughout the first half of the 20th century. Charles F. Winson purchased the gem in the 1950s and chose to break its (alleged) curse by cutting the diamond into three pieces. The 67.50-carat cushion-shaped diamond is on display in the American Museum of Natural History; however, the whereabouts of the remaining diamonds are a mystery. Fancy Origins Diamonds with fancy colors have traditionally been a small part of the jewelry business, but their popularity has grown over the past few decades. Most come from India, South Africa, and Australia, but other mines in Brazil, Venezuela, and Indonesia produce fancy color diamonds. How are fancy color diamonds made? During a natural diamond’s creation, trace elements such as nitrogen, sulfur, and boron and color diamonds in shades of yellow, green, and blue. However, you won’t find trace chemical elements in pink diamonds. Instead, “the color is caused by a distortion in the diamond’s crystal lattice, created by intense heat and great pressure from all directions after the stone’s formation,” according to the Victoria Museum in Australia. The distortion misplaces many carbon atoms from their normal positions and alters the qualities of light that allows us to observe the stone as pink. Whether you’re looking for a white diamond or a fancy color stone, we have the best selection in DFW. Come see why we’ve stood the test of time at the original Dallas Gold & Silver Exchange.