Facts about Fancy Colored Diamonds

You’ve probably seen magazine and television ads promoting fancy colored diamonds, and the advertising seems to be working. Fancy colored diamonds continue to rise in popularity into 2015. Increase your knowledge of fancy colored diamonds—and learn some interesting facts—before you buy.

1. Diamonds that have been colored naturally, without the help of people, are known as authentic fancy colored diamonds.
2. Authentic fancy colored diamonds are often worth more than clear or white diamonds. Rarecoloreddiamonds.com wrote that 20 years ago, a one carat fancy intense-pink internally flawless diamond would have sold for approximately $70,000. Today, that same diamond would be worth $500,000.
3. According to Diamonds.net, fancy color diamonds have increased in value by 167 percent on average since January 2005, outperforming other assets in that period, including the Dow Jones industrial’s average increase of 58 percent, and Standard & Poor’s 500 63 percent increase.
4. Fancy color diamonds are found in 12 different colors, with more than 90 secondary hues and nine intensity levels within the 234 color combinations.
5. Authentic fancy color diamonds get their color from the trace elements they are exposed to. Radiation can create a greenish tint, while large amounts of nitrogen causes a yellowish color.
6. Through heat treating and irradiation, gemologists are able to enhance the color of most diamonds, as well as create beautiful synthetic diamonds in labs, making fancy color diamonds more affordable and available to people.
7. Fancy colored diamonds are graded differently than white diamonds. The four main criteria for determining a fancy color diamond’s value include hue, color saturation, color purity, and availability. The diamond’s color, including intensity of color and hues, are considered the diamond’s most important qualities.
8. With fancy colored diamonds, the rarer the color, the more valuable it will be. And if the color is richly saturated, the diamond will also be worth more.
9. In fancy colored diamonds, inclusions are considered desirable. Inclusions are actually flaws, but in a colored diamond, they can create unique tones and beautiful flashes of color.
10. In December 2012,  at the final lot of Christie’s auction season, a reddish-orange fancy color diamond sold for $2,098,500, setting a new world auction record for a reddish-orange diamond and a new per-carat record price of $666,200.

If you’re in the market for fancy colored diamonds, make sure to visit Adina by Empire Jeweler’s remarkable online store. You’ll find an exquisite selection of diamond jewelry at true wholesale prices, all appraised by Empire’s GIA-educated appraisers.