The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing 3,106 carats (621.20 g), discovered at the Premier No. 2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine.
Topping our list of the most expensive diamonds in the world is the legendary Koh-I-Noor. Weighing in at a massive 105.6ct, the most expensive diamond in the world is oval shaped. Steeped in mystery and legend, the stone is believed to have been mined in India in the 1300s.
Kohinoor is the most expensive diamond in the world. As per reports, the oval 109 carat diamond weighs 21.6 grams and is the main diamond of the British Crown. Its origin is traced back to India with Queen Elizabeth II being the current owner of the diamond.
Although most black diamonds on the market today are either superheated or irradiated to an almost black color, natural black diamonds do exist, though they are extremely rare. Carbonados, sometimes called "black diamonds," are a distinct and unusual polycrystalline diamond material.
Gem-quality rubies are significantly rarer than diamonds, though there are certain types of diamonds that are very rare too. If we weigh the most spectacular examples of rubies and diamonds against one another, diamonds that show color are even rarer.
Arguably, fancy blue diamonds are the second rarest diamonds on the market. Comprising only 1% of all the mined colored diamonds in the world, blue diamonds are often associated with royalty. The color grading ranges from a very faint blue to a fancy vivid blue.
Red diamonds are the rarest of the colored diamonds, with only 20-30 existing in the entire world. They get their beautiful red color from a rare process during their formation, which changes the crystal structure of the diamond and causes light to pass through it differently than colorless diamonds.
The celebrated Regent Diamond has been on display in the Louvre in Paris since 1887. It is widely considered to be the most beautiful and the purest diamond in the world. But the Regent Diamond once went by another name.
Tanzanite is a shocking 1000 times more rare than a diamond. Discovered for the first time in 1967 and only found in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, these gemstones go for about $1,500 per carat. Tanzanite has the ability to change color depending on the angle of light it is in.
Pink Diamonds Originate Mostly From Australia
Amazingly, less than 1% of the Argyle mine's output are actually pink diamonds, making these diamonds the rarest of the rare. This means that for every one million carats of rough diamonds mined at Argyle, only one carat of pink diamonds is suitable for selling.
The average concentration of gold in Earth's crust is 'very, very low,' at 4 parts per billion. In its elemental form, gold is significantly rarer than diamonds.
The Golden Jubilee diamond
In 1997, the diamond was presented to the King of Thailand after it took specialists a few years to cut and polish. Today, the largest finished diamond is owned by the Royal Family of Thailand.
#1 - The Hope Diamond
Probably the most well-known of all gems, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond has a past as colourful as the stone itself. The stone's story as we know it begins in 1642, when a French merchant purchased it and then resold it a few years later to King Louis XIV of France.
Known by awed gemologists simply as “the Blue,” the world's biggest blue diamond first vanished in a jewel heist during the turmoil of revolutionary Paris in 1792. Since then, it has resurfaced and disappeared several times around Europe and across the Atlantic.
Did you know that natural (also called “fancy”) diamonds can come in nearly every color of the rainbow? While the odds of a diamond having color are estimated at 1 in 10,000, rare brown, yellow, red, blue and purple diamonds exist, as well as diamonds of all sorts of colors in between.
From dramatic hues to cool undertones, gray diamonds are extremely rare with high clarity ratings. The colors vary featuring distinct intensity levels: Faint Grey.
Brown diamonds are generally the least expensive of natural fancy colors. As with colored stones in general, color is paramount for fancy colored diamond pricing. Other quality factors like clarity and cut do not affect prices as much as with colorless diamonds.
Only a few pure purple diamonds are found in the world each year. Purple diamonds have been found in South Africa. Two mines in Russia, Yakutia and Arkhangelsk, have also produced a small number of diamonds with purple as their dominant hue. The Argyle Mine of Australia is one of the only sources of violet diamonds.
The Moussaieff Red Diamond's New Home
Sometime between 2001 and 2002, the Red Shield Diamond was purchased from Goldberg by Shlomo Moussaieff, an Israel-born London jeweller and the founder of Moussaieff Jewellers Ltd. The stunning diamond was acquired for an estimated $8 million and renamed the Moussaieff Red Diamond.
While diamonds may be the most important gemstone in history due to power, trade, and influence, they are not the rarest stones on earth. While many stones aspire to the global influence of the diamond, these five are harder to find, rarer, and more expensive than Marilyn's best friend.
On the whole, opals are rarer than diamonds because there are less high-quality opals available than there are diamonds. The good news is that you can find a gem-quality opal for a great price, especially compared to a diamond.
Amethyst is the rarest member of the quartz family, and deposits occur throughout the world. One of the most significant producers of amethyst is Brazil, where several states possess large deposits.
February babies have the rarest birthstone of all. Diamond (April) is the rarest birthstone in a total of six states, while topaz (November) is the rarest birthstone in Montana, Wyoming, and Rhode Island.