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The $1 Million Pink 'Prosperity' Diamond

Pecel

Rough_Rock
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
44
At the last tender, Leibish & Co. won six diamonds. One of those was a radiant cut 1.71-carat vivid pink diamond. A skilled diamond cutter removed 0.03 cts. (less than 1 percent) and the color changed to a fancy vivid purplish pink and the value dramatically increased. “We just touched it," said Leibish Polnauer, the Israeli-based company’s founder and CEO. “But you have to touch it the right way.”

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ehgm45ggje/the-1-million-pink-prosperity-diamond/#gallerycontent

My question is - how did the cutter do this? I don't know much about fancy diamonds but I thought color didn't depend on the cut. Am I wrong?
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 30, 2005
Messages
33,227
Color strength does depend on cut, and very much so.
The more times light is forced to bounce back and forth through the colored material, before exiting out the top, the more color the light picks up.
Leibish's cutter changed the angle of some existing facets and/or added some facets to do just that.
GIA grades the color strength while viewing only the top of the stone.

Kudos to Shmulik Polnauer, Leibish's GG, for making this risky and high-stakes call! :appl:

BTW the reason we rarely see rounds or step cut FCDs is those cuts let the light back out the top after fewer "bounces" through the material.
Cutters cut to maximize the color strength.
I can't really blame them since this results in a higher color grade from GIA, which yields more profit form the rough.
The radiant cut must be especially effective at this since so many FCDs are radiants.
 

acebruin

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
719
but i am still a sucker for step cuts and round brilliants fancy colored diamonds... much more scarce in the fancy colored diamonds world for reasons kenny stated...
 
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