When is a "Pink" diamond - not actually 'Pink'???

All is not what it seems (allegedly) .... along with the many bizarre named synthetic gems (which we have to admit SOME are brilliant), the public are now faced with a new phenomena - coated diamonds - these are natural or lower quality man-made diamonds which have been specially coated in ["diamond" (sic)] the colour required (ie Pink, Blue, Red, etc).

But what is the problem? Natural (mined) Pink and Blue diamonds are much more expensive than their white counterparts - in the region of $100,000 to $250,000 per carat. If the subject diamond is 'coated' in the colour, surely the real value is almost the same as its donor diamond, after-all it is simply a coating? OK it may be a "diamond" coating but not through and through - just on the surface.

Our natural colour diamonds are not interfered with in any way, canary yellow is bright yellow and the 'Blues' range between Aqua and Sapphire.

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Radio 4 - You and Yours feature in "synthetic diamonds"

Just to put the record straight. Of the three laboratories mentioned in the Radio 4 program (You and Yours, Monday, 26th May) only LifeGem make 'memorial diamonds' the other two Gemesis and Apollo do not (allegedly).

Phoenix Diamonds are UK based and one of three others in the whole world who only make 'Memorial Diamonds' but we are not connected in any way to any of those mentioned.

The program also refers to lab' created diamonds as "synthetic", this word infers in some ways that they are inferior to natural mined diamonds - our diamonds are real diamonds and can be certified by 'AnchorCert' the Birmingham Assay Office.

Terminology is a huge tin of worms and is being highly disputed all around the world as what to call 'created', 'man-made' or 'lab-grown' diamonds. De-Beers have always been derogatory towards 'created' diamonds though strangely enough were beaten to the patents by just 7 days against General Electric who won in them in the 50's (allegedly).

It also may be true that gems can be grown in just "4 days" - probably in a factory production line process, but we have a very labour and technically intensive scientific process just to prepare the carbon for the same HTHP process in a single unique diamond production.

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More diamonds from the lab'

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The Rarest Gems in the World : Blue Diamonds

Blue diamonds have captivated the rich and powerful shimmering brilliance with a certain mystique. The famous Hope Diamond, a 45.52 carat grey-blue in beauty, was passed down through the ages from King Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette and American heiress Evalyn Walsh McClean among others. It can be found today in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.

One of the rarest gems in the world, a flawless blue diamond, has sold for $US7.98 million ($A8.9 million) at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, making it the most expensive gemstone per carat in the world sold at auction. The Sultan of Brunei reportedly bought another massive "blue" which surfaced briefly in the 1980s.

After intense bidding, the 6.04 carat, internally flawless blue diamond fetched $HK61.9 million, or $US1.32 million ($A1.47 million) per carat. The price smashed a 20-year-old record held by the Hancock Red - a red diamond, which fetched US$926,000 per carat at the time, auction house Sotheby's said. Sotheby's said the buyer was Moussaieff Jewellers in London, which has a reputation for acquiring extremely rare and costly gemstones. The seller was a private Asian collector.

While not a large stone, the Sotheby's diamond has an esteemed cut and "fancy vivid blue" hue - factors which contributed to its blockbuster price of roughly 10 times the per-carat price of regular white diamonds. The blue hue is a result of trace amounts of boron in the stone's crystal structure. Other coloured diamonds with pink and red hues can be mined in multiple locations across the globe including Brazil, India and Australia, but "blues" are mostly found at just one site on earth - the Premier mine in South Africa.

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