An Information About Red Diamonds

Diamonds usually come in all shapes and sizes. When a stone is rare, the more expensive its price becomes. The clarity and color of a stone are two big factors which affect its value the most. In this case, the red diamond is famous for being one of the rarest colors in the world. Its rarity is proven because it is thought that there only exists 30 true gem quality red diamond.

History of Red Diamonds

During the 1980s, the highest paid price of a diamond per carat was $127,000 USD, and it was implemented on the 7.27 carat pink diamond. But in 1987, the Hancock Red Diamond broke records for getting sold at a price of $926,000 USD per carat! This diamond truly made history especially when Mr. Hancock revealed that he originally bought the rare stone for only $13,500 back in 1956. Up to this time, there’s only a limited number of red diamonds that have been shown to the public thus increasing its mystique. This precious stone continues to break records, and by that alone, you can tell that this particular color is an exclusive and expensive shade for a colored diamond.

Red Diamond

What Causes A Diamond to Become Red in Color?

Most colored diamonds usually get their fancy hues due to impurities of the elements present such as boron and nitrogen while the red ones are usually made of pure carbon just like how the colorless ones are made. The red color in a diamond is caused by a rare deformation in the crystal’s atomic structure which is also known as “plastic deformation.”

Whenever red diamonds are being recovered from underground and light passes through the irregular lattice, the light’s unusual bending causes the stone to reflect a ruby-like color.

Red diamonds usually project a different appearance when they’re brought in different lighting environments. They appear at their best during daylight and in candlelight while they look worst in fluorescent light. Blue diamonds, on the other hand, displays its beauty/worst on the exact opposite of these different lighting conditions.

These fancy red diamonds are graded according to the intensity of its color, and it ranges from dark pink to a purplish red. This means that the stronger its hue, the more expensive it becomes.

Red Diamond Ring
red diamond

Different Shades of Red

Compared to the other colors in the Fancy Color world, the intensity of the red diamonds have no varying levels. In fact, some people may even think that the red color of the stone is probably just a super-saturated level of the pink spectrum.

However, there are different modifiers that can be associated with the diamond’s red color. The most aesthetically pleasing for this one will be the Purplish Red. As for the other modifiers of the color Red, it is the Orangey and Brownish shade. But these 2 are usually valued lesser compared to the pure Red or Purplish Red.

How Much are Red Diamonds Worth?

Of all the colored diamonds, red is the rarest wherein it even surpasses the rarity of the pink diamonds. It is a known fact by now that red is expensive but how much exactly is it worth?
Here are a few pointers that you should look into:

Red Diamond Earrings
  • The Hancock Red Diamond weighs at 0.95 carats, and it sold for $880,000 USD in 1987.
  • The De Young Red Diamond weighs at 5.03 carat, and its estimated worth is $5 million USD.
  • The Moussaieff Red Diamond weighs at 5.11 carat, and it was sold for $8 million USD in 2001 and has probably reached the value of almost $20 million USD today.

From these values alone,
there’s no doubt that red diamonds indeed belong to the most expensive kind.

The Value of a Red Diamond

From the prices mentioned, you can tell that the Red Diamond is indeed a rare specimen. As time goes by, colored diamonds become more of an investment thus giving it a high demand amongst collectors. There is no clear evidence as to how much of the Red Diamonds still remains based on all the sources that were accounted for thus making its value continue to rise significantly. The figures are already high today, and if it continues to become rare in nature, then there’s no telling how much it will be worth in the future.

red diamond

Where are Red Diamonds Found?

There are lots of diamond mines scattered all throughout the world, but only a few of them contains the red diamond which includes Russia, Brazil, Australia, and India. The Argyle mines is the one that is known to contain the red and pink diamonds which are then featured in their annual Argyle Tender.

red diamond

Famous Red Diamonds

Feast your eyes on these famous red diamonds that are known to exist.

The Hancock Red Diamond
The Rob Red
The Moussaieff Red Diamond
The Supreme Purple Star

The Hancock Red Diamond

This fancy red diamond weighs at 0.95 carats and has a round brilliant cut. It was named after the famous collector Mr. Warren Hancock. This stone is not famous for its size but rather of the rare purplish red color. Mr. Hancock first bought the fancy red stone for $13,500 USD in 1956.

The Rob Red

This stone has a VS1 clarity, weighs at 0.59 carat, and is shaped like a pear. According to a fancy color expert, the Rob Red is the purest and saturated red diamond that has been measured instrumentally and visually.

The Moussaieff Red Diamond

It was originally known as the “Red Shield.” This gem is a fancy red, weighs at 5.11 carat, internally flawless (IF), and has a triangular brilliant cut or trilliant-cut. It was discovered by a Brazilian farmer in the Abzetezinho River in the 1990s. The Moussaieff jewellery firm acquired the stone in 2001 for the price of $8million USD. It was known to be the largest red diamond that has been discovered up to this day.

The Supreme Purple Star

This gem comes with a round brilliant cut and weighs at 2 to 5 carats. The exact measurement for the clarity and color of the fancy diamond has not yet been revealed. When you look at this diamond in one angle, it seems to have a deep purple color. But once you rotate it to the right, its color changes from a deep to vivid purplish red.