Charles Wyndham, founder of PolishedPrices, a leading index of wholesale diamond prices, said on Friday prices of larger, rare, near-flawless gemstones had shot up by roughly 200 percent over the past 18 months.

The surge has been driven by increased interest from a growing number of multi-millionaires in emerging markets, a shortage of rough diamonds, and the dollar’s slide, he said.

Diamond jewellery prices have risen in tune with wholesale diamond prices, but fine jewellers like Graff and Cartier say demand is holding up well for top-tier diamond jewellery in upscale retail outlets on Bond Street in London and in New York.

“Sales are doing well — Cartier is a high-end business and, therefore, better protected,” Frederic de Narp, president and CEO, Cartier North America, told Reuters in June. He gave no figures. Cartier is a subsidiary of Swiss luxury goods maker Richemont.

High-end jewellers in London and New York are reporting increased traffic from foreign visitors, especially from commodity-rich countries in the Middle East, South America and eastern Europe.

The wholesale price of internally flawless 3-carat round polished diamonds has jumped to $100,000 per carat as of June 1, from $55,000 last December, according to PolishedPrices.com.

The world’s rarest polished gemstones have experienced staggering price rises in recent months. Wyndham estimated 13-carat perfect diamonds now to be worth in excess of $200,000 per carat wholesale, an all-time peak.

“If you have a perfect stone, you will get unbelievable prices,” Wyndham said.

The main PolishedPrices index, which incorporates a range of diamond categories, stood at 136.3 points this week, 6 percent above the level this time last year.

“There are signs that the high prices being paid for fine qualities are beginning to trickle down into the commercial categories, with commercial one carat diamonds also setting an all-time high,” PolishedPrices said in its latest market report.

Both the fine and commercial indices are now showing double digit growth since the start of the year.

The rapid upward momentum in diamond prices cannot carry on at the present rate.

“It is impossible for this rate of increase to be maintained,” said Wyndham, who has been in the diamond industry for over 30 years.

He was a director of the CSO, De Beers’ selling arm, before setting up his own diamond businesses in 1995.

While high net-worth individuals want to possess the most exquisite gemstones, the picture is far less buoyant for low-tier gem-quality diamonds, Wyndham said.

The sharp slowdown of the U.S. economy, the world’s leading market for diamond jewellery, has hit demand for low-end diamonds and bolstered inventories.

“As long as you’re talking about good quality diamonds, the scene has been pretty positive. However, commercial, lower end (gem-quality) diamonds have had a very rough time,” he said.

Carat weight is the most deciding factor as to the value of a diamond. A well cut diamond of SI1 clarity and a weight of 4.00 carats would be worth alot more than one of the same clarity, but weighing 1.60 carats and VS2 clarity.

The largest faceted diamond in the world is the Golden Jubilee, weighing 545.67 carats. It is a Fancy Brownish-Yellow color and “fire rose cushion cut.” It is unusual also because it has a certain type of rare color banding. The second largest faceted diamond in the world is the Star of Africa, also known as the Cullinan I. It weighs 530.20 carats and is a pear shape with 74 facets. The third largest diamond in the world is the Incomparable. It is a golden yellow-orange color, pear shaped, and weighs 407 carats. The fourth largest faceted diamond in the world is the Cullinan II. It was cut from the same stone as the Star of Africa – aka Cullinan I. It weighs 317.40 carats and is a cushion cut.

There are many many different types of diamond cuts. The most common is the round brilliant, which has 57 facets. There are several very common variations on the round brilliant - the oval, the marquise, some cushion cuts, and the pear. All of which, in standard form, have 57 facets. Other very common diamond cuts are the heart, the step, and the princess. The sky is the limit as far as diamond cuts go.

Some exotic cuts can waste rough stone. Heart cuts have become very popular the past few years, partly because of the booming diamond industry, and the film “Titanic”, which featured a large heart cut blue sapphire that was thrown into the ocean. The movie prop was fake. However, after the film’s release, a jewelry company faceted a heart cut sapphire identical to the stone in the film, then mounted it in a necklace to match.

People often confuse the Hope Diamond and the ‘Heart of Ocean’ – both were blue, and both were surrounded by smaller white stones. However, one is a heart cut and the other a cushion, and the ‘Heart of the Ocean’ is considerably larger than the Hope Diamond.

Diamond clarity is measured on a scale of I3 to FL. These are short for Imperfect 3 and Flawless. I3 (imperfect, eye visible inclusions), I2 (imperfect, eye visible inclusions), and I1 (imperfect, eye visible inclusions). I3 is the worst one the scale. It’s so included that it looks like there is a cottonball trapped inside the diamond. Then higher up on the scale is SI2 (slight inclusions), and SI1 (slight inclusions). Many SI diamonds that are finely cut may look alot better than their clarity calls for. VS2 and VS1 are the next on the scale, standing for very small inclusions. Both the Hope and the Tiffany Yellow Diamond are of VS1 in clarity. VVS1 and VVS2 stand for very very small inclusions. The 137-carat Light of Peace is a VVS1 in clarity and a D in color.

IF stands for internally flawless, and then FL, which stands for flawless. In your everyday jewelry store, an interally flawless diamond is unusual. D, E, and F-color diamonds are fairly common, especially smaller ones. A combination of D-color and Internally Flawless is rare, and therefore more expensive. The two largest faceted D-Internally Flawless diamonds that I know of are the 273.85-carat Centenary Diamond and the 203.04-carat Millenium Star Diamond.

The largest Internally Flawless diamond is the Incomparable, which is a 407-carat Fancy Brownish-Yellow “triolette” shape. Flawless diamonds are quite rare. The highest grade one usually sees is Interally Flawless. You could search the world for a Flawless diamond but there wouldn’t be much point — an Internally Flawless would essentially be just as good. The only difference is an Internally Flawless diamond is allowed to have ‘naturals’, which are unpolished surfaces of the original diamond crystal still remaining on the finished gem. They are usually small and hidden from view on the pavilion side of the stone, up near the girdle. They tend to have a glassy (but not polished) look, sometimes showing ‘trigons’, which are triangular depressions characteristic of many diamond crystals. As long as that aren’t visible in the face-up diamond, they don’t affect the clarity grade. However, they can’t be present in a diamond for it to receive a Flawless grading.

Color

Diamond color is graded on a scale of the alphabet, using letters D through Z. The letters A, B, and C aren’t used. This is because when the Gemological Institute of America invented the scale they wanted to disassociate it from jewelry stores that used their own color grade scales. The colors D, E, and F are considered to be completely colorless.

D is the best. Some famous diamonds are actually leaning towards the Z end of the scale but aren’t quite “Fancy colored”, like the faint yellow 55-carat Sancy Diamond. The largest known D-color diamond in the world is the Centenary, which weighs whopping 273.85 carats.

The second largest is probably the Millennium Star, which weighs 203.04 carats. Some diamonds do not fit onto the scale, such as fancy colored diamonds. Diamonds occur in every color of the rainbow.

The rarest colors are red and purple, and combinations of those two colors. Yellow and brown are the most common color of diamond, but colorless is the most popular as far as jewelry is concerned. (Colored diamonds are very gradually appearing in more and more jewelry stores as they become more well-known.) Blues and greens are very rare, especially naturally colored stones. Some lightly colored diamonds (light light pink, light light blue, ect.) are irradiated to make their color more intense. This means that low fields of radiation are beamed into the cut and polished stone, darkening the outer part of the stone all the way around. The process is permanent and professionally accepted in the diamond industry. Probably the largest irradiated diamond is the Deepdene, a 104.88-carat golden yellow cushion shaped stone.

The name “diamond” derives from the ancient Greek adamas. Popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world economy, and innovative and successful advertising campaigns. They are commonly judged by the “four Cs”: carat, clarity, color, and cut. Although synthetic diamonds are produced each year at nearly four times the rate of natural diamonds, the vast majority of synthetic diamonds produced are small imperfect diamonds suitable only for industrial-grade use.

Diamonds are generally mined from volcanic pipes, which are deep in the Earth where the high pressure and temperature enables the formation of the crystals.

World of diamonds is not only full of brightness, nobility and honour. It is also world of blood, poverty, hunger and disease.

Most of the world’s production of diamonds comes from Africa, poor African states are forced to export raw diamonds to other contry where diamonds are cut, because diamond trade and diamond cutting is strictly limited to a few locations, and a single company—De Beers—controls a significant proportion of the trade in diamonds.

The De Beers company, as the world’s largest diamond miner holds a clearly dominant position in the industry, and has done so since soon after its founding in 1888 by the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. De Beers used its monopoly position to establish strict price controls, and market diamonds directly to consumers in world markets.

So african states, chief exporters of diamonds get a less share on diamonds profit than expected. Bloody diamonds (also called a conflict diamond, dirty diamond or a war diamond) are diamonds which are traded by rebel groups during conflict to fund their war efforts.

Although the United Nations first identified the conflict diamond issue in 1998 as a source of funding for war, it was the diamond industry that took steps to address the conflict diamond issue by convening a meeting to plan a method by which the trade in conflict diamonds could be halted, and buyers of diamonds could be assured that their diamonds have not contributed to violence.

Conflict free diamonds

A conflict-free diamond is a diamond whose profits aren’t used to fund any wars and they are produced and mined under ethical conditions.

Only diamonds that are certified and can be traced from the mine to the consumer are conflict-free diamonds. Conflict diamonds are still being sold today into the international diamond market as clean diamonds.

When you’re looking to buy a diamond consider a situation not only in your wallet, but be aware of situation if Africa, where thousands of innocent children are forced to digg diamonds in terrific condition.

Buying a diamond is not only beauty, but it’s also a way to change the world.

The De Beers Millennium Star is, at 203.04 carat (40.608 g), the world’s second largest known top color (D), internally and externally flawless, pear-shaped diamond.

The diamond was discovered in the Mbuji-Mayi district of Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1990 in alluvial deposits; uncut it was 777 carat (155.4 g). It was purchased by De Beers. It took over three years for workers of the Steinmetz Diamond Group to produce the classic pear form; the actual cutting was done using lasers.

It was first displayed in October 1999 as the centerpiece of the De Beers Millennium diamond collection. The collection also includes eleven blue diamonds totaling 118 carats (23.6 g) and The Heart of Eternity. They were displayed at London’s Millennium Dome over 2000.

The largest cut white (D) diamond by weight is the 1991 heart-shaped 273.85 carat (54.77 g) Centenary Diamond.

When we come to the shape of loose diamonds, there are shapes of round, emerald, pear princess, and radiant cuts. There are also shapes of marquise oval, asscher, heart, and triangle cut diamonds. It is very important to focus on the four C’s before making any purchase of loose diamonds.

The four C’s of diamond quality refers to cut, clarity, carat, and color. These determine the rarity of different loose diamonds. You should decide which of the four Cs is most important to you and it is up to you to choose a loose diamond accordingly.

The most expensive diamond found on earth is the colorless and crystal diamond. It is expensive due to its clarity and size. Always try to understand its worth and value when you buy loose diamonds.

You can shop loose diamonds on the Internet too. There is a plethora of websites where you can find diamonds of different shapes, sizes, and color. They also offer full satisfaction to the customers. So, choose from the wide range of loose diamonds online and place your order. You will get your order delivered to your doorstep within a day or two.