American Museum of Natural History Showcases 25 Notable Diamonds

A new diamond exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City illustrates the wide range and scope of diamonds existing today. Displays include natural white and fancy colored diamonds, with part of the show demonstrating two different types of synthetically produced diamonds. The diamond case is curated by George Harlow, curator of the Museum’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Part of the show includes fancy colored diamonds, which are diamonds that have a color other then white. Those graded as vivid are diamonds displaying the most color saturation and are very rare finds.

One of the diamonds on show is a 2.17 carat vivid pink, which was the second largest diamond in the 2005 Argyle Tender. The diamond is set in gold with small pink diamonds also coming from the Argyle Mine in Australia.

Five vivid colored diamonds - blue-green, orange-yellow, purplish-pink, blue and orange gems — from the Olympia Diamond Collection are on display. The colored diamond collection is on loan from Scarselli Diamonds and curated by gemologist Joshua Sheby.

Another exhibited diamond is a brilliant-cut, 5.4 carat diamond pendant surrounded by 20 sapphires in white gold setting, designed in 1960. The exhibit includes a showcase of lab-made diamonds that illustrates the different processes used in producing them.

Laboratory diamonds can be created using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique whereby diamonds are created by adding a gas mixture to a heated chamber containing seed material. The display includes stages of growth of CVD diamonds and a blue diamond modified by the addition of boron for use as a semiconductor.

Laboratory-grown diamonds can also be created using the High-Pressure, High-Temperature (HPHT) technique in large presses. Examples include rough and polished diamonds and a cultured pearl necklace with a pendant featuring a 2.01 carat lab-made yellow diamond surrounded by a pave of natural white diamonds.

DNA2Diamonds utilizes the HPHT method for the creation of its diamonds.

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