When you think of a rainbow, you probably think of the weather turning from rain to sun and look up to the sky to see a multi coloured arch with stunning natural colours. Well who wouldn’t?
Do you know that there are no fewer than 27 different colour grades recognised by the diamond industry? And that is without analysing the different colour grades of a white diamond, as set out in the 4C’s.
What we have here is a hue circle which has all the colours mapped out for you to see.
These are shown in order of common to rare as laid out by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America).
Today I will delve deeper into the hue and look at the different colour’s and their rarity in nature.
As mentioned previously, colour’s are graded according to the GIA by 27 different hues, and have been standardised in the circle colour scheme. As you can see some hues are straight (possess one colour) and some have a secondary hue. There are diamonds that even have third and forth hues.
In most cases a single coloured stone will have a higher value than one with a secondary hue, although diamonds that their secondary hue makes them rarer are more valuable. For example a Yellow diamond with a secondary Green colour or Pink with a secondary Purple colour will be more expensive.
On the other hand a Yellow diamond with a secondary Brown, or Blue with a secondary Gray will be less expensive, due to the reason that their secondary hue makes them more common and less valuable in comparison.
Rarity is a key point in regards to value: the rarer the colour the higher its price. The most valuable colour’s, which are also extremely rare and expensive, are in following order: Red, Green, Blue, Purple and Pink. The most common colour’s are the light Yellow, Brown, Black and Gray colour’s. And yet, during the last few years even these colour’s are becoming more popular and the Brown (Champagne/Cognac) and Black ones are becoming very sought after as well and therefore more expensive than just only a few years ago. You can see my previous blog on Black Diamonds here.
If you would like an appointment, then please do call for a free consultation in our central London Hatton Garden office and we would be glad to try and help you. Our details are on the main page of the Lewis Malka London website.
