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Darth Vader (The Monarch Diamond)
"Should Jewelers
start warning customers that the diamond they're buying could be
treated for color, but there is no way of knowing for sure?"
That's a direct quote from Jewelers Circular Magazine,
Sep 1999 page 92. What they are talking about, along with everyone
else, is what could be "The greatest gemological crisis to
hit the diamond industry!" That's at least what Gemological
Institute of America President William Boyajian said at a recent
symposium. The Monarch Diamond is a non-detectable, color-enhanced,
treated diamond that is now on the market and creating havoc.
The diamond is the brain child of General Electric
& Lazare Kaplan and sold through a company called Pegasus Overseas
Limited. In a nut shell here's what they do. They take an inexpensive
brown or yellow diamond, heat it at high temperature and pressure
and bake out the nitrogen or boron present to make it white. Like
a twice-baked potato, with one exception, this one will leave a
bad taste in your mouth!
Baked diamonds, or annealed diamonds as some
people refer to them, though they are undetectable to labs or
independent
appraisers have one major flaw, they are brittle! Moreover treated
diamonds have little or no secondary market value. Insist your
diamond
comes with a bonding document to guarantee that it is natural or
you could just wind up buying one of the most expensive pieces
of
costume jewelry ever.
*Monarch Diamond*
formerly known as Pegasus Diamond.
Also see article
Bonded Jewelers
by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book
"How to Buy a Diamond."
More questions? Ask
the Diamond Guy®
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