Fancy diamonds are something special. Not only because of their rarity but also due to the incredible variety of colours and shades. Please feel free to contact us. We will inform you about the current values of different fancy diamonds and the development of the past years.
Statistically only one in 10.000 diamonds is a Fancy-Diamond. The name Fancy Diamonds, also known as Fancys for short, refers to colored diamonds. Fancys are in vogue. They are very rare and therefore extremely valuable:
Their prices can be considerably higher than the standard for colorless diamonds. Statistically, only one in 10,000 diamonds is a "fancy diamond".
There are different fancy colors, e.g. yellow, orange, red, blue, green and pink. The rarest are pure red diamonds, they are the most expensive of all diamonds. The first big fancy diamond source was discovered in South Africa in 1867. Since the 1980s, the Argyle Mine in Australia has been the most important source of pink to red fancy diamonds.
However, this mine was shut down at the end of 2020 and only diamonds from the stock are traded.
The English word fancy translates as fantasy. As an adjective, it also means "fancy" and "extravagant". Let's take the so-called "yellow series" in diamonds as an example: It comprises seven gradations and ranges from "High Fine White" (River D) to "Tinted White" (Crystal or J). Diamonds graded "Crystal" already have a faint yellow coloration visible to the naked eye. These diamonds still belong to the yellow series mentioned above and not to the fancys. Diamonds with a very intense yellow color ("canary yellow", as it is called in technical jargon), on the other hand, are Fancys.
Decisive for the value of fancy diamonds are the colour and its intensity.
A flawless "intense blue" round diamond weighing 2.02 carats changed hands in the spring of 2021 for the proud sum of 2.67 million US dollars. A flawless brilliant 2 carat diamond with the best possible color (D, i.e., high-fine white+) cost a total of a good 80,000 U.S. dollars including VAT in the spring of 2021.
This means that, with otherwise comparable quality criteria, the fancy diamond brought more than 33 times the price compared to a colorless stone due to its rare color. This shows that colored natural diamonds are an asset class in their own right and are therefore only suitable for investors with a correspondingly large fortune. While fancys used to be considered curiosities, a separate market with its own laws has long since emerged for these sought-after stones.
What are these laws - and what distinguishes them from the rest of the diamond market?.
At first glance, not much: the value of fancy diamonds also results from the mentioned diamond grading criteria, but with special priorities. In addition to the weight (carat), the color and its intensity are in the foreground. The cut is also important, as it determines the brilliance of the diamond. However, it is less important for fancys than for white diamonds. The same is true for clarity. Fancy diamonds are graded primarily under two aspects: First is to determine the basic color of the stone, for example, blue, yellow, green or pink. Second important criterion is the intensity of the color. Both together - the basic color and its intensity (i.e. color saturation) - determine the value of fancy diamonds. To assess color saturation, the respected U.S. institute GIA has developed a nine-step scale ranging from "faint" (weak) to "vivid" (clear, vivid).
The Argyle Diamond Mine ( Rio Tinto ) Australia was the most important producer of pink, blue and red diamonds in the world. The stones mined were 80% brown, 15% yellow and 4% white diamonds. Pink, blue and red diamonds accounted for only 1% of the mined quantity. This mine alone produced about 90% of all pink diamonds discovered in the world to date.
The Argyle diamond mine has discontinued operations by the end of 2020, as the mined material is almost exhausted and therefore a profitable mining is no longer guaranteed. This is already starting to cause a significant decline in the availability of high quality pink diamonds on the world market. The already rare Australian pink diamonds have become even more sought after in recent months.
Pink diamonds have the highest value growth in the colored diamond sector, with an average investment growth of 15%. In the last 15 years, the prices of pink diamonds have never decreased.
Welcome Future AG has direct access to these pink diamonds. All our Australian pink diamonds are marked with an argyle lot number and the certificate which guarantees their quality and authenticity.
