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Tried, true: colored diamonds

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| Wednesday, May 14, 2008 |

Gannett News Service

When it comes to the “C’s” of a diamond, one is getting a little more attention than the others these days.

Colored diamonds are popular, but they aren’t really new, says Paul Curtin, the owner of Raymond’s Jewelers in Sioux Falls, S.D. “I’ve carried them for 20 years.”

Jerry Ehrenwald, the president and CEO of the International Gemological Institute, agrees. Natural-colored diamonds have always been around, he says.

Colored diamonds can be purchased from department stores or upscale jewelers. They are experiencing an uptick in popularity, although demand has varied over the years.

“Demand has grown in the last decade as a result of Hollywood,” says Ehrenwald, a graduate gemologist and a senior member of the American Society of Appraisers.

There are more than 300 colors of natural diamonds, including pink, blue, yellow and green. Red is the rarest natural diamond. The most intensely colored stones are called fancies and are more rare and valuable than colorless diamonds. For example, deep canary yellow or naturally occurring blue diamonds are more valuable and costly than their colorless cousins.

The diamond company De Beers had an overabundance of brown diamonds and renamed them champagne and cognac to make them more desirable, says Alon Spektor, co-owner of The Diamond Room in Sioux Falls. “A champagne is a glorified brown diamond.”

The gimmick caught on. After all, people have their own tastes about what’s beautiful.

Ehrenwald said the three most popular fancy colored diamonds are the yellows, pinks and blues.