THE RAREST OF RARE

As Pantone declared Ultra Violet as the colour of the year, here is a quick look at what an extremely rare purple/violet diamond consists of and some of the most famous ones to be found.

As we bid goodbye to Green, a colour that gave us a plethora of jewels in emeralds, jades, green tourmalines, green onyx, peridots and more, we embrace the rather cosmic Ultra Violet, Pantone’s declared colour of the year. From a journey surrounded by greenery, we are stepping into a world of vibrancy, with Ultra Violet being the chosen colour. While this paves way for an increase in demand for gemstones such as amethysts and tanzanites it could possibly create more curiosity about the rarest of rare ‘violet’ diamonds. As the demand for intense fancy colour diamonds is on the rise anyway, we are going to see a sudden surge of interest in violet diamonds that are a rare occurrence.

Violet – Purple: What’s in a Colour?
The difference between violet and purple may be fractional, but it is still not something that can be neglected. For purple diamonds, Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, a method used to determine the colour of a diamond is at 776.4 nm, commonly found in type IIb diamonds with intensely coloured blue to gray color and in combination with red phosphorescence. Sometime back, GIA tested a 1.42 carat diamond with similar qualities, but with boron concentration of approximately 28 ppb – the stone was classified fancy colour for its intense purple colour – a very rare and natural type IIb diamond. In the industry, violet and purple are often used interchangeably but it is significant to note that violet diamonds have more blue-grey in them while purple diamonds have hints of pink and red in them.

Fancy violet diamonds are extremely rare; even though the colour difference between purple and violet is minute, violet diamonds are perceived to be rarer than purple. They are hardly found in sizes more than 1 carat; in fact, pure violet diamonds without any inclusions or modifications are found from 0.10 carat to approximately 0.30 carat.

Over the last 3 decades, Argyle has produced only 12 carats of polished violet diamonds. Before 2016, the mine had produced just one 1-carat-plus violet-colored diamond in the year 2008.

Famous Purple/Violet Diamonds
Though purple and violet diamonds are technically different, both colours definitely qualify under Pantone’s colour of the year – Ultra Violet. ‘The Royal Purple Heart Diamond’ is a 7.34 carat Fancy Vivid Purple diamond which was mined in Russia and was cut in Julius Klein Diamond Corporation. It is the largest purple diamond ever to be mined and is also considered intensely rare not just because of its distinct purple hue but also its very rare heart shape. In 2002, Michael Hing, a British gemologist said ‘The stone has diagonal surface graining that is clearly visible to the naked eye on the table facet if you look at it under a glancing light. It is not as blue as in your photo, it’s more purple than lilac. The girdle is very thick in parts, they were obviously trying to retain weight.’

More recently, in 2016, the Argyle mine revealed to the world an intensely violet 2.83 carat violet diamond which was cut from a 9.17-carat rough. At the time of discovery, Rio Tinto Diamonds general manager of sales, Patrick Coppens said the Argyle Violet was “impossibly rare and limited by nature”. Over 69 per cent of the diamond’s weight was lost during the cutting process to bring out the beauty of the stone. The stone was bought by L. J. West Diamonds Inc. who refused to disclose the winning price. The stone was supposedly set in a ring surrounded by small Argyle fancy pink diamonds.

Since violet/purple diamond is an extremely rare occurrence, jewellery using such stones is hardly created. They are often sold at auctions to diamond collectors who purchase these diamonds as an investment.