“A diamond is forever.” – De Beers
Diamonds have always represented two great powers of mankind: wealth and passion. Diamonds hold such profound value because of its rarity, especially because of its difficulty in producing as a natural mineral.
Royal figures such as the Queens and Kings of England and Spain commonly used diamonds as a store of wealth and a means of power. In times of uncertainty, diamonds could be used as their monetary asset. They could take their gems with them as a means to survive if they needed to flee without money. Diamonds were easy to grab and go from their boudoir.
As global finances remain unstable in modern times, investors are showing an increasing awareness in the strengths of a diamond as a medium of personal asset protection. Like rare art and property, diamonds not only hold their value, but increase over time. (This is true specifically for natural diamonds only — not laboratory grown.) Diamonds, and especially natural fancy-color diamonds, are the highest concentration of wealth of any real asset in existence today.
Left: Most diamonds mined are formed in an octahedral. Right: The Canadian Arctic Mine. Courtesy of GIA.
Diamonds have to go through a LOT before it reaches a jeweler’s showcase. Over the course of millions of years, diamonds are formed deep within the earth, over 100 miles beneath the earth’s surface under extreme heat and pressure. It is then violently pushed up toward the surface of the earth where miners carefully and relentlessly work to bring those uncut gems to our table.
Portability: throughout history, whenever there was political instability or individuals had to leave their home out of haste or fear, they were unable to transport all of their assets in an easy and undetectable way. By converting their assets and belongings into the form of diamonds, they were able to move around freely. They could leave countries and continents with incredible sums of wealth safely in their pockets. This stands true today; individuals can hold onto their diamonds and turn a profit later down the line without having a penny to their name.
Multipurpose Asset: diamonds are both an investment and as a thing of beauty to be enjoyed, similar to a piece of art.
Rarity and Value: like all of our planet’s natural resources, diamonds are finite and only getting rarer. Nature will not bring any more diamonds to the surface of the earth’s mantle as the volcanic activity that brought them there ended tens of millions of years ago. Additionally, from the diamonds that are available, the average yield in most diamond mines in 1 part diamond to 1 million parts host rock.
