The dramatic deep inner glow of South Sea Pearls makes them the most valuable of all pearls. Two round luminous South Seas are complemented by a halo of pave set diamonds and set in 14K white gold with omega backs.

ICE Price: $1,995.00

world's largest diamond was the Cullinan, found in South Africa in 1905. It weighed 3,106.75 carats uncut. It was cut into the Great Star of Africa, weighing 530.2 carats, the Lesser Star of Africa, which weighs 317.40 carats, and 104 other diamonds of nearly flawless colour and clarity. They now form part of the British crown jewels.

The Cullinan was three times the size of the next largest diamond, the Excelsior, which was also found in South Africa. The world's largest documented polished diamond - unearthed in 1986, also in South Africa - is called Unnamed Brown. It weighs 545 carats and was cut down from a 700 carat rough diamond. It took an international team of expert cutters 3 years to complete the masterpiece. Another impressive diamond that also took 3 years to cut, and also is part of the British crown jewels, is the Centenary Diamond. It weighs 273.85 carats and is the world's largest flawless diamond.

Not all diamonds are white. Impurities lend diamonds a shade of blue, red, orange, yellow, green and even black. Vivid blue, green and pink diamonds are the rarest. They are not the rarest gemstones, however. That title goes to a pure red ruby. Diamonds actually are found in abundance; thousands are mined every year. 80% of them are not suitable for jewellery - they are used in industry.

t is estimated to be capable of producing a 150 carat polished gem stone, dwarfing the Koh-i-Noor diamond which is part of the Crown Jewels. A spokesman for Gem Diamonds, who own the mine, added that initial examination suggested that the white diamond, which has yet to be named and valued, has a completely flawless centre.
The mine, which was owned by famous diamond company De Beers for many years, has already produced three of the world’s biggest diamonds including the 603 carat Lesotho Promise, the 493 carat Leteng Legacy and the 601 carat Lesotho Brown.
Clifford Elphick, chief executive officer of Gem Diamonds, said ‘Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best colour and clarity.’
The find is still dwarfed by the Cullinan Diamond which was discovered in 1905.
At 3,106 carats it was the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found but the biggest polished stone produced from it, the Great Star of Africa - 530 carats - is a teardrop shape.
The Koh-i-noor is a round cut but at 105 carats it is smaller than the potential size of the new find. It originated in India but was seized by Britain as a spoil of war in 1849. It supposedly brings good luck to female owners and misfortune or death to any male who wears or owns it.

WORLD'S LARGEST DIAMOND

A huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history has been discovered.
The massive stone is the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, weighs 478 carats and is said to be of outstanding clarity.
It was recovered earlier this week at the Letseng Mine, in Lesotho, a small kingdom in South Africa.
Another similar sized rough stone from the same mine was recently valued at $12million.
But the clarity and round shape of the new gem mean it could be worth considerably more and in its polished state could fetch tens of millions of pounds.

Two teams of U.S. researchers have found that carbonados — or black diamonds-com from outer space. Helped with funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF), they discovered nitrogen and hydrogen in these porous black diamonds found only in Brazil and the Central African Republic. And these elements are not found in conventional diamonds extracted from mines from volcanic rocks. They think these carbonados were part of asteroids which landed on Earth about 3 billion years ago.

This research was done by jozsef Garai and stephen Haggerty of Florida International University, along with Case Western Reserve University researchers Sandeep Rekhi and Mark Chance. For this project, they used the infrared synchrotron radiation at Brookhaven National Laboratory and a technology named Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy or FTIR (Link to wikipedia)

So even the NSF agreed that these diamonds come from far beyond the Earth. Here is an explanation.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

COLOUR:
Diamond is available in pale yellows, browns, grays, and also white, blue, black, reddish, greenish and colorless.

LUSTER:
Diamond is adamantine to waxy.

TRANSPARENCY:
crystals are transparent to translucent in rough crystals.

CRYSTAL SYSTEM:
it is isometric; 4/m bar 3 2/m.

CRYSTAL HABITS:
Include isometric forms such as cubes and octahedrons, twinning is also seen.

HARDNESS:
The hardness od the diamond is about 10.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY:
The specific gravity of diamond is 3.5 (above average).

CLEAVAGE:
It is perfect in 4 directions forming octahedrons.

Diamond is a polymorph of the element carbon. Graphite s another polymorph. The two share the same chemistry, carbon, but have very different structures and properties. Diamond is hard, Graphite is soft (Which is also present in the "lead" of a pencil). Diamond is a good conductor of electricity, current can pass easily through it. Diamond is the ultimate abrasive, Graphite is a very good lubricant. Diamond is transparent, Graphite is opaque. Diamond crystallizes in the Isometric system and graphite crystallizes in the hexagonal system. Somewhat of a surprise is that at surface temperatures and pressures, Graphite is the stable form of carbon. In fact, all diamonds at or near the surface of the Earth are currently undergoing a transformation into Graphite. This reaction, fortunately, is extremely slow

Physical Properties of Diamond

LATTICE DENSITY:
The atoms of Diamond are packed closer together than are the atoms of any other substance.

TENSILE STRENGTH:
Diamond has the highest tensile strength of any material, at 2.8 gigapascals. However, that does not quite translate into the strongest rope or cable, as diamond has cleavage planes which support crack propagation. The strongest ropes can likely be made from another material, carbon nanotubes, as they should not suffer from the effects of cracks and break. Still, if a long, thin, perfect crystal of diamond could be manufactured, it would offer the highest possible pulling strength.

COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH:
Diamond was once thought to be the material most resistant to compression (the least compressible). It is the material that scientists use to create the greatest pressures when testing matter. However, the rare metal Osmium has recently been shown to be even less compressible (although it is not as hard as diamond). Diamond has a bulk modulus (reciprocal of compressibility) of 443 GigaPascals (GPa). The bulk modulus of the metal osmium has recently been found to be 476 GPa, about 7% greater than diamond.

Physical Properties of Diamond

HARDNESS:
Diamond is a perfect "10", defining the top of the hardness scale, and by absolute measures four times harder than sapphire (which is #9 on that scale).

CLARITY:
Diamond is transparent over a larger range of wavelengths (from the ultraviolet into the far infrared) than is any other solid or liquid substance - nothing else even comes close.

THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY:
Diamond conducts heat better than anything - five times better than the second best element, Silver!

MELTING POINT:
Diamond has the highest melting point (3820 degrees Kelvin)

DIAMOND

Diamond is the gemstone, having some weaknesses but many strengths. It is well known about that Diamond is the hardest substance found in nature, but few people realize that Diamond is four times harder than the next hardest natural mineral, corundum (sapphire and ruby). But even as hard as it is, it is not impervious. Diamond has four directions of cleavage, meaning that if it receives a sharp blow in one of these directions it will cleave, or split. A skilled diamond setter and/or jeweler will prevent any of these directions from being in a position to be struck while mounted in a jewelry piece.

As a gemstone, Diamond's single flaw (perfect cleavage) is far outdistanced by the sum of its positive qualities. It has a broad color range, high refraction, high dispersion or fire, very low reactivity to chemicals, rarity, and of course, extreme hardness and durability