My diamonds are only a few years old 
What an interesting concept! A buyer can pick a diamond ābornā on the day of the first date or something like that.
āThis diamond, just like our love, was born on June 12th, 2016. And now it will live forever!ā 
^^I saw a funny bumper sticker once that said āShe wonāt last forever, why get her a diamond?ā It was from an emerald broker.
Real emeralds are as rare as real diamonds.
Ok, really nice ones
^^much more rare, actually. A good natural emerald is a lovely, lovely thing to see.
Diamonds are not forever, they have a negative heat of reaction, if you want to give something permanent, give a āleadā pencil (really graphite, which is the stable form of carbon diamonds will eventually mutate toā¦course, might be after the sun goes nova, but what the heck:)
Well, thatās not very romantic!!
Nothing like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils to get you in the moodā¦ Ticonderoga could start a new ad campaign to rival anything put out by De Beers!
Especially now when we can apparently molecularly duplicate them, can anyone explain to me their appeal, beyond being sparkly glass that costs a lot (even if not two months salary.)
I mean, if you step back, itās certainly an Emperorās new clothes, these are worth much because we have all agreed but have no intrinsic use, type of commodity, isnāt it?
Theyāre beautiful. Thatās their appeal for me.
I like sparkly jewelry and always have! Large is good, too!
Donāt forget that diamonds can also fracture easily. They are the hardest mineral, but thatās scratch resistance.
The natural planes of weakness are probably how early gems got ācutā
http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research/how-protect-diamond-chipping
āEspecially now when we can apparently molecularly duplicate them, can anyone explain to me their appeal, beyond being sparkly glass that costs a lot (even if not two months salary.)ā
Oh here we go again. Diamonds (manmade or natural) are compositionally, physically, and optically different from glass. Can we assume that some other factors, like chemistry and physics of diamond formation, their physical and optical properties, etc. fascinate some folks?
āDiamonds are not forever, they have a negative heat of reaction, if you want to give something permanent, give a āleadā pencil (really graphite, which is the stable form of carbon diamonds will eventually mutate toā¦course, might be after the sun goes nova, but what the heck:)ā
Ignoring the fact that inorganic compounds do not mutate, I am going to say that you are totally ignoring the activation energy barrierā¦ 8-|
@MotherOfDragons, so what are your favorite gems and why? Thanks for the tip about the difference in sparkle between a diamond and white topaz. I see a lot of lovely white topaz jewelry on etsy but always wondered about that.
Also, a question: canāt a diamond be certified and still be a better/worse quality than another certified diamond? And to what extent does the ācutā of the diamond affect its value?
"Especially now when we can apparently molecularly duplicate them, can anyone explain to me their appeal, beyond being sparkly glass that costs a lot (even if not two months salary.)
I mean, if you step back, itās certainly an Emperorās new clothes, these are worth much because we have all agreed but have no intrinsic use, type of commodity, isnāt it?"
Iām not a big jewelry person myself, but isnāt the value simply in that people find diamonds / jewelry appealing to look at?
To me, what youāre saying is kind of like saying: āCan anyone explain to me the appeal of this Monet painting. I mean, if you step back, thereās no intrinsic value beyond $x worth of canvas and $x worth of paint.ā
People like, value, and pay for things that have little intrinsic value simply because they find them attractive. Iām presuming you live in a house that appeals to your own personal aesthetic (whatever that may be) - not just a box. Iām presuming that you are sitting on a sofa that is covered in fabric you find pleasing to the eye and pleasing to the touch, not just the cheapest burlap. And Iām presuming that you wear clothing that you find aesthetically pleasing, not just whatever covers up the naughty bits. It would seem to me that jewelry is just another aesthetically pleasing choice and in that regard has value just like many other aesthetic choices we make everyday.
Iām not a big fan of diamonds but I fell in love with a blue diamond. I wanted a round setting because I could see myself hurting myself on an edge so I got clear diamonds around it. I wanted a sapphire originally but it was too dark for me.
I rarely wear other jewelry but when I do it is usually just metal or metal and colored stones.
A Water Lily painting is the result of Monetās creative process. If that is the comparison, I would think perhaps the man made diamond is more āartistic.ā What is creative about a diamond? The cut? The setting? When Garland asked what makes the it of value, now we can duplicate the process, I thought about a few things. The setting itself can be an artistic creation which can have value, sometimes a lot of value. An interesting historic ownership of the stone could make it valuable.
Garlandās question is interesting to me. Before we had lots of cultured pearls, and most pearls were natural, they were much more āvaluableā and desirable than diamonds.