Most people think of diamonds as white or colorless, and they certainly are the most prolific. However, diamonds exist in a myriad of colors including yellow.
Diamonds in the normal color range are colorless to light yellow and fall within the industry standard’s Gemological Institute of America color grading scale, which qualifies color from D colorless to Z light yellow. Beyond the Z range are considered fancy colored diamonds—with yellow being one of many—the classification range of which is Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Dark, Fancy Deep, Fancy Intense, and Fancy Vivid. For colorless diamonds it is the absence of color that increases the value, while in fancy color diamonds the reverse is true: the value generally increases with the strength and purity of the color.
Less than 1% of diamonds are fancy colored, making yellow diamonds incredibly rare. As the crystallization of carbon atoms is occurring in the earth’s crust, instead of the resulting stone being made only of carbon, a trace amount of nitrogen is present which creates a yellow hue. The amount of nitrogen determines how saturated the diamond becomes. The first yellow diamond was found in South Africa in 1867 when a young teenager found what he thought was a rock. He gave it to his mother, who in turn gave it to a neighbor, and eventually it made its way to Europe where it traded hands until DeBeers purchased the diamond in 1967. It is now called the Eureka Diamond. Eventually donated to the people of South Africa, it now resides in the Kimberly Mine Museum in Northern Cape, South Africa.
Yellow diamonds provide an interesting and alluring alternative to a colorless diamond. They look beautiful in both white and yellow metals and are often cut in shapes other than modern round brilliant.
