Diamonds are forever, but are the oldest diamonds necessarily the most valuable? Find out here.
An antique or ‘old’ diamond isn’t necessarily worth more than a new one, but that fact depends entirely on the nature of the diamond. If an antique diamond features an outdated or rare cut style or has a particularly storied history, then it may be more valuable, but it’s uncommon.
Read on to learn more about diamonds, how their value is determined, and how popular they are in the jewelry world.
The Old Ones Were Built To Last
Technically, every diamond on Earth is old, as it can take anywhere from one to three billion years for a diamond to completely form. They’re the result of pure carbon being compressed by an unimaginable pressure and subjected to intense heat.
Subsequently, millions of years later, a diamond will be mined from the planet’s crust, cut, polished, and, if it’s of ‘gem quality’, affixed to a ring. Alternatively, if it isn’t high quality, it will be used for another application, such as in industrial tooling.
In fact, more diamonds are used for industrial purposes than in jewelry, owing to them being the toughest material known to man. Today, diamonds are used for abrasive surfaces, drill tips, and cutting blades, and their resiliency is absolutely unmatched.
It might seem bizarre, but diamonds are actually quite a common material, and they’re not as rare as you might think. There are millions of diamonds pulled from the Earth every year, but it’s the gem-quality stones that are much harder to come by.
When it comes to the overall value of a diamond, only the finest examples are worth a considerable amount. If the diamond you’ve mined isn’t remarkable, it won’t have a massive value, even after it has been cut, polished, and treated.
In fact, diamonds are extremely prone to depreciation, and a ‘second-hand’ diamond will be worth a fraction of its full retail price tag. There are some exceptions to the rule, but these diamonds will traditionally be extremely beautiful, feature a rare hue, or be abnormally large.
There’s no real boost in value for antique diamonds either, with most old diamonds generally being priced at a lower level than modern diamonds. However, if an ‘old diamond’ features an outdated and rare style of cut, it might drive up the value, as it introduces an aspect of rarity to the stone.
Ultimately, almost every super expensive diamond was mined in the last one hundred years. Although there are some older stones with a storied past that are worth an enormous amount, they’re extremely rare examples.
The Diamond Club
Throughout the last few decades, some exceptional diamonds have changed hands for exorbitant sums of money. Typically, the most expensive and awe-inspiring diamonds will feature a unique coloring or a considerable size.
For example, there’s the Hope Diamond, an enormous stone uncovered in India some four hundred years ago. This is one of the most famous gemstones on the planet, and it reportedly carries with it a curse.
The Hope Diamond has been stolen, recut, and has traveled the world extensively over the last four centuries. Today, it’s thought that the Hope Diamond is worth almost a quarter of a billion dollars, but it isn’t the most expensive diamond.
It’s thought that the most expensive diamond in the world is the Koh-I-Noor, an exceptional gem that is an important part of the British Crown Jewels. What started as a 186-carat stone now measures some 105-carats, with the original gem having been cut down to improve its brilliance.
Reportedly, the Koh-I-Noor was stolen from India, the country where it was found around seven hundred years ago. While the Koh-I-Noor hasn’t ever been officially appraised, it’s expected to be worth anything up to half a billion dollars.
While age does play into it somewhat, these diamonds are so highly valued because they’re unique examples. They’re oversized, which is a huge factor, but many of the top-tier diamonds also boast an uncommon hue, such as shades of pink or blue.
There’s a fantastic example in The Pink Star, a seventy-million-dollar pink diamond that was mined in South Africa in 1999. This stone broke records when it was auctioned in 2017, but its value wasn’t a result of its age.
It stands to reason that a diamond can be one thousand years old and worth nothing, or a week old and worth one hundred million dollars. If it’s an impressive diamond, it’ll be valuable – it doesn’t really have anything to do with age.