>Purple Diamonds

Written by sudha on February 10, 2009

>Natural fancy coloured diamonds are very rare and expensive. Purple is one of the rarest and most desirable colours. The attempted Millennium Dome Diamond Robbery was an attempt to steal 12 large diamonds valued at a total of £200 million, an average of over £16 million each. Eleven out of the twelve diamonds were fancy coloured diamonds! Purple is one of the rarest and most desirable colours. A purple diamond recently assessed by the British Gemmological Institute has been estimated to be worth over £14 million, and to be the most valuable natural object in existence on a weight for weight basis. This stone weighs between four and five carats. There is a larger purple diamond on display at a Paris museum, but its colour is paler.

How Expensive?

Quality for quality, fancy purple diamonds are more expensive than ordinary near-colourless ones. The processing adds to the costs, so it is generally only worth treating diamonds of high clarity. The diamonds selected for treatment usually start off a one of the less desirable colours such as brown or yellow. There is no certainty about the final colour that any particular stone will be after treatment.

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