Red Diamonds - The Rarest Colored Diamonds

Diamond Education:

Most of the highest-priced diamonds in the world have been fancy color diamonds. The one that leaps to mind immediately is the Hancock Red -- a 0.95-carat Fancy Purplish Red round brilliant, which sold for $880,000 in the late-1980's.

This stone held the world record for the highest price-per-carat ever paid for a diamond (about $926,000) for a number of years, and it wasn't even a very clean stone. It had some eye-visible flaws and there was a chip out of the girdle.

Purple and red are the rarest colors diamonds that occur.

The Moussaieff Red is the largest red diamond in the world.

The most common gem-quality colors diamond occurs in naturally are light and medium shades of brown and yellow.