Here are some diamond 'stories' that happened in 2017 reported from the Rapaport News.
The nomenclature: Gemological Institute of America (GIA) identifying stones that laboratories had produced using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT).
- "Imitation is the best form of flattery — but few natural colored-diamond dealers will enjoy this particular compliment. In this case, a manufacturer placed a CVD coating onto a 0.33-carat natural diamond to make it appear blue. Shockingly, the diamond had previously received a fancy-blue grade from a lab. However, the GIA’s New York team noticed several characteristics that helped identify it as a natural-synthetic hybrid. "
- "Synthetics came up again here, though this item had full disclosure. Gemologists at the GIA’s Carlsbad laboratory, to which the diamond had been submitted for a synthetic colored-diamond grading report, found the stone contained an “H4 defect” usually present in natural diamonds. This was the first time the GIA had identified such a feature in a CVD diamond: The type of nitrogen impurity that results in this phenomenon is very hard to recreate in a lab."
- "Fraud, synthetics, grading reports and the GIA — this story had almost everything diamond traders worry about. In a rare case, fraudsters had imitated the GIA code on a 1.76 carat HPHT stone’s girdle, making it seem that it was in fact a 1.74-carat diamond that had received a genuine grading report from the institute in 2015. Gemologists busted the scam, as certain traits betrayed the stone as synthetic, plus the font used for the inscription was wrong. "
- "There was a distinct story to this massive stone. Lucapa Diamond Company dug the 404.20-carat rough up in Angola last year. De Grisogono and Nemesis International formed a partnership to buy and process it into a 163.41-carat polished stone. De Grisogono then unveiled it within a spectacular necklace, which, it later revealed, is transformable into a bracelet. Spoiler alert: The piece ended up selling for $33.7 million at Christie’s Geneva auction in November. "
- "This diamond was just as remarkable as the 163-carater, with news of its sale falling only marginally behind in eighth place. The Rapaport News team had an informal sweepstake on how much the 59.60-carat, fancy vivid pink, internally flawless Pink Star diamond would sell for, and this reporter humbly notes he got it spot on. Strangely, the world record of $71.2 million wasn’t the highest price this stone had fetched: A bidder won it for $83.2 million at Sotheby’s in 2013, but defaulted. "
- "This diamond ring had something of a rags-to-riches narrative. The seller at Sotheby’s had bought it for $13 (GBP 10) at a car-boot sale — the British equivalent of a flea market — in the 1980s, assuming it was a piece of costume jewelry. It turned out to be a real 26.29-carat, VVS2-clarity diamond. The stone adopted the name the “Tenner,” after its original price. "
- "Diamantaires deal with labs a lot, but not usually this type: A dog named Bear managed to get hold of a GIA-graded, brilliant-cut, 1.3-carat, G-color, VVS1-clarity Forevermark diamond, and eat it for dinner. Bear’s British owner noticed his wife’s $16,000 engagement ring was gone, and took the pet for an x-ray, which showed the outline of an unmistakable item. It came out naturally, but needed cleaning. "
Direct quotes from the Rapaport News, December 2017
