salmon-colored fluorescence in fancy yellow diamond

[elmo]

This was unusual enough to me that I thought I'd upload a photo. It is a small fancy intense yellow diamond that has what appears to be faint pinkish-orange fluorescence. It doesn't have a report so I'm not sure what the GIA would call it...it might be too faint to show up on a report

. Next to it is a stone graded medium blue...on the strong side of medium to my eye at least.

I've often heard about diamonds that fluoresce interesting colors but hadn't seen one before.

 

[valeria101]

Wow! Are this on your desk ?

 

[elmo]

Actually the photo was shot in a bathroom because it's one of the few rooms in the house without a window

.

The only concern is whether irradiation or HPHT can induce pinkish-orange fluorescence...

 

[valeria101]

I see... interesting stones.

In all honesty, before this I thought that red fluorescence in diamonds is some GIA myth! I am sure you know about the discussion on strong yellow-green fluorescence in HPHT diamonds and such. But pink?

 

[mogok]

Well are you speaking of the diamond in the left side?
For me the "salmon coloration" of this stone looks more to be the reflection of the UV tube... The salom color is only visible on the table and does not come from inside the stone, so its not fluorescence, its only reflection. Compare with the right stone: The fluorescence is coming from all over the stone on a very different pattern than on the left stone.
The left stone looks to me to have no or very weak fluorescence.

All the best,

 

[DiamondExpert]

"...I thought that red fluorescence in diamonds is some GIA myth!"

I don't think so - the Hope diamond has red fluorescence..

elmo: As you know, GIA is a little flakey sometimes in reporting fluorescence.

In addition to not reporting it when it is present, I have seen certs indicating "faint", when the faint was yellow fluorescence and not blue!...you just have to check each stone.

As for your case, I don't think the pic does justice to what you are actually observing...I found I couldn't see the pink color.

However, you are correct to by worried about HPHT in a uncerted stone.

 

[diamondlil]

Um . . . HPHT?

DiamondLil

 

[valeria101]

Ok. Elmo is the professional here, not me.

None of the sources I inspected on diamond treatments wastes too much ink on diamonds with faint fluorescence, not to mention red one. Hope does not really make the phenomenon mainstream.

Threated yellow diamonds with no brown modifiers are suposed to have strong fluorescence... This stone does not. There must be a better way to identify color origin for this stone.

 

[elmo]

----------------
On 3/21/2004 8:26:32 PM mogok wrote:

The left stone looks to me to have no or very weak fluorescence.
----------------

It is certainly weak, but not none...although I expect that it's less than than GIA's faint master. In person, the pear drops out in the middle just like the oval.

Gary, you're right about the photo vs. actual appearance...the effect is subtle.

Val, I'm not a pro...am a hobbyist like you

.

 

[mogok]

----------------[/quote]


It is certainly weak, but not none...although I expect that it's less than than GIA's faint master. In person, the pear drops out in the middle just like the oval.


----------------[/quote]


Well without a comparaison stone it is difficult to say if it is weak or none. For what I see in my screen the stone looks to have a weak blue fluorescence thats right. I dont see any "salmon". The only thing that is "salmon" color in my screen is the color from the reflection of the UV tube that we can see on the table of the left stone.

 

[mike04456]

Just a clarification--the Hope has red phosphorescence, not fluorescence. For the non-techies, that means it actually glows red after the UV light is shut off. And from the photos I've seen, it's vivid, blood-red, almost like a ruby.

 

[The Joker]

Hi Gary:
"I don't think so - the Hope diamond has red fluorescence.."
************************

The Hope GIA report lists the fluorescence as "none".

Here's the link to the report. Makes an interesting read.

http://www.colored-diamonds.com/giafancydark.jpg

Joker....

 

[The Joker]

LawGem:
"the Hope has red phosphorescence,"

That's interesting, Where did you find that information????

Joker....

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 3/22/2004 6:28:58 PM The Joker wrote:

LawGem:
'the Hope has red phosphorescence,'

That's interesting, Where did you find that information????

Joker....----------------

Oh, even the Smithsonian lists this result. Plenty online sources give further detail (by Google mercy). There is no mention of fluorescence, but of this other phenomenon. I did not know that a grading report was ever issued for the Hope upon inspection ! Why not

No picture I know of, but an interview with Jeffrey Post (the curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection of the Smithsonian Institution) reads:

"The Hope Diamond also has a very unusual phosphorescence. That is, when you take the Hope Diamond into a dark room and expose it to ultraviolet light, then turn off the ultraviolet light, the diamond will glow a deep ember-orange color. A very few other blue diamonds have been known to show the same orangey phosphorescence, although none that I'm aware of to the same intensity as the Hope Diamond."

Few articles on diamond phosphorescence would fail to mention this, in fact.


BTW: Do you know anything on the site you found the report on? It is way weird

 

[mike04456]

Gemological examinations of the Hope have been published in a number of places, most recently in the Winter issue of GIA's Gems & Gemology. The examination was apparently concurrent with the Smithsonian diamond exhibit last summer. They describe a "strong red phosphorescence" lasting over a minute. Pretty striking, apparently.




Incidentally, that looks like an old report in that link. According to the article above, GIA upgraded the Hope's color to Fancy Deep grayish blue in 1996.

 

[The Joker]

Very interesting:
Thanks for the sources.

Joker....

 

[elmo]

Well that's something I didn't initially look for or expect to see, but after seeing the Hope diamond references here I went back just now and looked...this little oval literally glows in the dark with the same salmon color for 10-15 seconds after the UV light is turned off

.

Very very cool. Thanks folks.

 

[innerkitten]

Not a myth. I have one that glows under black light and I love wearing it at night clubs.