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FANCY CHAMPAGNE AND COLOUR DIAMONDS
Fancy champagne and cognac colour diamonds are just about the only bargain left in the diamond market these days. Although DeBeers controls most of the World’s Diamond supply, they do not have a total control over Fancy Colour Diamonds, known as Fancy Brown and Champagne Colours, which are mainly mined in Australia. Today’s consumers can easily buy Champagne and other Fancy colour Diamonds at true market price without having to pay a pre-set price by DeBeers, this does not reflect the reality of supply and demand like any other Gem and other Free Markets.
AUSTRALIA’S ARGYLE MINE
The World’s largest Diamond Mine produced 29 million carats in its first year of production in 1986. It then increased its production to 42 million carats per year, a third of the World’s supply of Diamonds but only 6 to 7% of its value because it produces relatively small size Diamonds and mostly Fancy Champagne and other Fancy colours. DeBeers underestimated the market of Fancy colours, the reason for many Diamond dealers and major Indian cutting companies were able to buy and cut roughs at relatively low cost and sell at affordable prices. Argyle Mine reversed the market view of coloured Diamonds. Today with consumer trend to buy Fancy colour Diamonds rather than the usual boring colourless Diamonds, DeBeers announced in a recent issue of National Jewelers Magazine in June 1999 that they were producing and entering the Champagne colour Diamonds market.
DIAMONDS ARE SEXY
Diamonds are sexy and Champagne colour Diamonds are more interesting when worn by both sexes. Faint brown colours, known in the Trade as "top light brown" mainly fall into (N to R) or (S to Z) meaning they are neither fancy nor colourless White Diamonds. When brown colour show enough body colour looked at face-up, it qualifies as a Fancy Champagne colour, the trade uses a different colour chart than the one used by GIA for White Diamond Grading. It is referred to as C-1 to C-7 and also called Fancy Light Champagne, Fancy Champagne, Fancy Deep Cognac colour and Dark Coffee colour.
VALUE AND COLOUR
Although the darker Cognac and Coffee colours are the most desirable colours because of their unique appearance and red flashes that they may exhibit, the light Champagne colour as well as the top light brown (TLB) are highly priced. This may be the case because of the fact that they are on borderline between white and fancy or between controlled Diamond Market and a Free Diamond Market.
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When buying fancy champagne colour Diamonds, remember if the stone is modified by other colour, it becomes amazingly expensive! Grading Reports from GIA shows a system of colour description based on the percentage of brown colour content. It a stone has up to 25% of its colour, green for example, it will be described as Greenish Brown or Greenish Champagne by using a suffix of "ish", if the green colour content is higher than 25% up to 40%, the colour is described as Green Champagne. Once the green colour is over 50%, the colour is described as Champagne Green or Brownish Green. The recognized colour modifies for Champagne Diamonds are yellow, orange, pink, red and green. The more colour content of one of those colours, the more expensive the diamond is.
Colour is a personal taste and preference. Value is not only determined by colour, but also by clarity, cut and carat weight. Collectors who bought Fancy colour Diamonds of one, two carats or more when colour Diamonds were relatively unknown, they are today in an excellent position with a high return of their investment, no doubt that fancy colour Diamonds are rare. Some colours are rarer than others, however, large clean SIs and VSs or better champagne colour Diamonds are absolutely rare. Australia, the only major producers of Champagne colour Diamonds are hardly producing any large sizes. IT IS AMAZING BUT TRUE! Ask your jeweler to find you a 2 or 3ct VVS White Diamond and a Champagne colour Diamond of comparable size and grade and then find out how many options you will be offered of each colour!!!!
| Clarity |
Explanation |
| FL, IF |
Flawless, internally flawless. No visible flaws--a very rare, and consequently valuable, condition. |
| VVS1, VVS2 |
Very, very slightly included--difficult to see imperfections even under 10X magnification. |
| VS1, VS2 |
Very slightly included--imperfections still not visible to the naked eye. |
| SI1, SI2 |
Slightly included, imperfections are easily seen with 10X magnification, but are not noticeable without this aid. Also called "eye-clean". |
| I1, I2, I3 |
Inclusions visible to the naked eye, with I3 much worse than I1. Sometimes referred to as C quality, "value" or "promo" quality. Or, for I3, simply a dirty diamond! |
Diamond Clarity:
All natural stones possess imperfections in the form of inclusions.Inclusions may take the form of dark specks, light-colored planes called "feathers", voids, general cloudiness, and other types of imperfections. Diamonds, in particular, are graded by clarity to designate higher value for those stones with higher clarity. Stones are graded under 10X magnification (the common "jeweler's loupe" magnification) so that flaws which may be invisible to the naked eye may be seen. The following table will explain the clarity grades used by the GIA. Also included is an example of approximate loose-diamond pricing based on an H-color, 1-carat diamond which illustrates the extremes in value simply based on clarity.
Lower clarity is usually tolerated in small diamonds because they are used as accents and are often pave set so that imperfections are less noticeable. Center and top stones should be of higher quality because of their prominence.
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