Shine Bright Like A Diamond

Diamonds are amazing. Here are 10 things you might not have known about them:

• Only one diamond in a million weighs a carat or more.
• Most diamonds are over three billion years old. Two thirds the age of the Earth!
• Diamonds are practically fireproof. To ruin a diamond by overheating you would have to heat it to 1292 degrees. If your house burns down your diamonds might be the only things that emerge unscathed.
• Diamonds where a gemmologist cannot see any inclusions at ten power magnification are graded FL - Flawless. Take a look at our Diamond Guide for lots more info.
• The word carat comes from the Mediterranean Carob tree. For centuries the seed of this tree was used as the standard for weighing precious gemstones.
• The earliest record of a man giving diamonds as a romantic gift was in 1477 when the Archduke of Austria gave a diamond to Mary of Burgundy. Quite the trend setters!
• The biggest known diamond in the universe weighs 2.27 thousand trillion tons. It makes up the core of a white dwarf star which was christened “Lucy” by astronomers after the Beatles hit “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
• The ancient Greeks believed that diamonds were splinters of stars fallen on the earth.
• The most valuable colour grading for a diamond is D colour. This grade is reserved for exceptionally white or completely colourless diamonds.
• Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring substance on the planet. They are not the hardest substance known to man though. Manmade Hyperdiamonds are 11% harder.