Fancy Yellow Diamonds

What causes the fabulous yellow color in these rare diamonds? Gemologists state that a presence of a certain amount of Nitrogen in the original formation of the diamonds thousands of millions of years ago created that canary color.

Many people still don't even know there is such a thing as a fancy colored diamond. Most people have no idea that diamonds occur in a color other than colorless (white). Yet, notes Perlman, when asked to identify the world's most famous diamonds, most people will name the Hope Diamond which is Fancy Dark grayish-blue, and the Tiffany Yellow which is golden yellow. It is also true that some colored diamonds have been valued higher than colorless diamonds of the same size and have fetched the highest prices ever paid for any diamonds recently.

Rare color Diamonds really means extremely rare and when these gems change hands, the sales are often veiled in secrecy. It is estimated that nature creates so few fancy diamonds that they account for less than 1% of the diamonds offered for sale at any given time.

When these exceptional diamonds do change hands, the sale often becomes international news. In March 1997, jewelry from the estate of Hollywood legend Claudette Colbert was auctioned at Christie's, Los Angeles. An important fancy intense yellow originally estimated at $60,000 - $80,000 was sold for $277,500. Two months later, in May 1997 a 13.83-carat fancy yellow vivid diamond was sold at Sotheby's, New York, for an auction record for fine yellow diamonds of $3.3 million, or approximately $239,000.00 per carat. With the ever present simple inflation factors and over this length of time, it is easy to see all the potential the future can provide.