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Diamond

Dia­mond is the king among gem­stones. Its shin­ing is the most at­tract­ive of all, its hard­ness is bey­ond com­pet­i­tion, and even a simple dress in com­bin­a­tion with a dia­mond neck­lace is able to turn a lady in­to a queen. From this sec­tion, you can learn everything con­cern­ing dia­monds, their vari­et­ies, and the main char­ac­ter­ist­ics ac­cord­ing to which dia­monds are eval­u­ated. You will also find out about some of the fam­ously known dia­monds.

Gemology

Dia­mond is a type of car­bon iso­mer which is known and ap­pre­ci­ated for its ex­cep­tion­al hard­ness and thermal con­duct­iv­ity, as well as for its light dis­per­sion and re­frac­tion rate. One of dia­mond’s dis­tin­guish­ing fea­tures is lu­min­es­cence, which is an abil­ity to emit rays of light when ex­posed to ul­tra­vi­olet, cath­ode, or X-rays. The main para­met­ers af­fect­ing dia­mond's qual­ity are the col­or, clar­ity, weight in car­ats, and cut.

Read more about diamond gemology.

Color

Col­or is one of the four main char­ac­ter­ist­ics that de­term­ine dia­mond's value and qual­ity. Pure, ideally clear dia­mond is al­ways ab­so­lutely trans­par­ent and col­or­less. This dia­mond type is the most rare and thus the most valu­able.

Read more about diamond color.

Clarity

Clar­ity, or pur­ity, is the most sig­ni­fic­ant factor in dia­mond's eval­u­ation. The ideal, 100-per­cent-clear dia­mond does not in­clude any ad­mix­tures and does not have any de­fects. Both in­ner and sur­face de­fects can af­fect the qual­ity of the gem, its look, and its price.

Read more about diamond clarity.

Classic Cut

The group of cut­ting styles used for dia­monds is called the bril­liant cut. With this type of cut, usu­ally it is pre­sup­posed that the lower fa­cets ra­di­ate from the cen­ter of the gem to­wards the girdle. The bril­liant cut has 57 fa­cets. Its most clas­sic­al shape is round, al­though oth­er shapes are pos­sible as well.

Read more about the classic brilliant cut.

Famously Known

The biggest rough dia­mond ever dis­covered is called Cul­l­in­an. Found in 1905 by the work­ers of Premi­er Dia­mond Min­ing Com­pany, it was as big as a man’s fist and weighed 3106 car­ats. Today, it would have been priced at 7.5 bil­lion US dol­lars.

Read more about famously known diamonds.