What makes a champange diamond?

[marqoid]

I have been looking at a stone in an antique setting that I found at an antique store. The seller called it a yellow diamond, but it clearly is not yellow. As I look at the stone it looks more orange than brown; would this be champange? Is it possible that it is an orange stone that the dealer hasn''t recognized as particularly rare and valuable? How would I tell? Also, how do prices of champange stones compare to white? The one I am looking at is a 0.92ct and under a loupe I could not find any inclusions (but I am inexperienced and granted that is looking at it in a setting, but I would be confident in saying that it is at least an SI1). The stone is not graded and I couldn''t not comment on it''s cut because colored stones sparkle differently than white, but they are only asking $1400. I''ve never seen a stone of that size priced that low. Anyone have any suggestions? Should I buy this as investment?

 

[DiamondExpert]

Accurately determing fancy color is the main factor in valuing such a diamond.

Most colored diamonds with brown secondary color modification will be less valued than those with no modifier.

Brown diamonds can be very beautiful, but brown color is not a highly valued color compared to other colors - it''s very common.

It''s possible that the stone you are looking at is indeed orange or brown with orange or yellow secondary color.

A pure orange color will be more highly valued than a brownish orange color or orangish brown color.

That''s why it''s very important to have fancy colored diamonds at least color graded by a major gem lab like GIA.

You can get taken to the cleaners very easily without a bit of paper to back up a color designation, and you probably would also want to know if the stone is natural and not color/clarity enhanced, also very important factors in determining the value of a stone.

 

[valeria101]

Investment.. no idea. You can probably bargain and keep it for it's own sake I guess. There is allot of price tag difference between orange straight, and orange tinted brown, and a rare fancy color will need a cert. It's your taking a chance before certification. My hunch says that if this were fancy orange, it would have had GIA papers by now. Not that there isn't room for good luck

Orange is just orange - orange peel: no yellow, no brown... not possible to use electronic pictures for exact color clues either

A golden color is usually brownish, but there's so much variation of orange-yellow-brown shades, that I can't begin to guess what you are seeing!

You may want to inspect fancydiamonds.com, icestore.com, diamondsbylauren.com or similar for clues, but the safest bet is to show the ring to an expert, sure that.

Hope the 0.2 helps s bit

 

[diamondsbylauren]

Hi marqoid and everyone!

Were you looking at a round diamond?

Orange is a funny thing in diamonds- when combined with brown it can be horrific- UGLY- or it can be very attractive.

Pure orange - or a diamond that has Orange without brown- these can be way valuable more than natural yellows

If the diamond is $1400 and it''s a pretty .92, how can you go wrong?** The diamond above was $30K in 2003- today I think it would be about $40k



** any number of ways- $1400 is still a nice pile''o''change. The key is your level of confidence in the seller- are you comfortable ?

 

[marqoid]

Yes, the stone was a round. And yes, it is now clear to me that the stone was not a strong orange as the ones pictured. Anyhow, at $1400 for nearly a carat it seems like a deal no matter the color. About the seller, I haven''t spoke with them yet (I saw the thing in a large antique mall).
Thanks for the input
Marcus