Diamond Fun Facts

Photo Credit: Cape Town Diamond Museum

Photo Credit: SA Jewellry

• Diamonds are defined as colorless gemstones composed of pure carbon, but diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow: blue, green, orange and red naturally-colored diamonds are considered extremely rare

• Most diamonds are 1 to 3 billion years old

• They are the hardest naturally-occurring substance on Earth

• The word "diamond" is derived from the ancient Greek root adamas, which means proper, unalterable, invincible

• Ancient Romans and Greeks thought that diamonds were the tears of gods, or remnants of fallen stars

Photo Credit: Fine Art America

• Romans also believed that the tips of Cupid’s arrows were coated in diamond

• Diamonds were first discovered in India, around 300 BCE. Here, myths that diamonds could ward off evil developed

• In thirteenth-century France, only Kings were permitted [by law] to wear diamonds

Photo Credit: The Engagement Ring Bible

• Upon the arrangement of their marriage in 1477, the Archduke of Austria gave Mary of Burgundy a diamond ring. This is our earliest record of a diamond engagement ring

• Diamonds were not discovered in South America until around 1725 (they were found in Minas, Gerais, Brazil)

• North American diamonds weren't discovered until the 1840s

• 'The Great Diamond Rush' began in the early 1870s, after diamonds were discovered in Africa

• In 2004 scientists discovered the largest diamond to date: a collapsed star with an estimated width of 4,000 km and weight of 10 billion trillion trillion carats ( 5 million trillion trillion pounds)

Photo Credit: BBC News

• The collapsed star was nicknamed Lucy after a Beatles songs, and it's located about 50 light years from Earth