Ocean Dream Diamond

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Origin of name

The diamond has a unique and rare deep bluish-green color, and the name of the diamond seems to have been inspired by this color, reminiscent of the the color of the deep blue ocean.

Ocean Dream Diamond

Ocean Dream Diamond

Characteristics of the diamond

According to the G. I. A. certificate the Ocean Dream diamond is a fancy deep blue-green, triangular brilliant or trillion-cut diamond, having a weight of 5.51 carats. It is the largest naturally colored fancy deep blue-green diamond in the world.

History

The diamond seems to have originated in the Central African Republic and the rough stone is known to have weighed 11.27 carats. The diamond is presently owned by the Cora Diamond Corporation of New York. Besides the above facts, other relevant information such as the mine of origin, the date of discovery, the circumstances relating to the discovery, The original owner of the diamond, the person or company involved in the cutting etc. are conspicuously lacking. Even details of how the Cora Diamond Corporation came to own the diamond are not not available.

The only details available about the diamond are the features of the finished diamond as certified by the Gemological Institute of America. The deep bluish green color is an extremely rare color among diamonds and perhaps this may be the only naturally colored diamond on record having this unique color. Thus in spite of it's relatively small size of 5.51 carats, compared to other famous diamonds, the Ocean Dream earns the distinction of being one of the rarest diamonds in the world. Artificial color enhancement by irradiation may sometimes impart this unique color to diamonds, that even a qualified Gemologist with a well trained eye may sometimes presume the Ocean Dream to be artificially colored, at first sight.

In our long list of famous diamonds the only other famous green diamond we have come across is the 40.70-carat Dresden Green diamond, which is a historical diamond of Indian origin. This gives an indication of the extreme rarity of green color in diamonds. the De Beers collection of fancy colored natural diamonds contain some rare specimens of natural green diamonds.

The Ocean Dream diamond was displayed as part of the Smithsonian's "The Splendor of Diamonds"exhibition, held between June 27th and September 30th, 2003, alongside the De Beers Millennium Star, the Heart of Eternity, the Moussaieff Red, the Alnatt diamond, the Pumpkin diamond, and the Steinmetz Pink.

Present owners of the diamond

The present owners of the diamond are the Cora Diamond Corporation of New York.

The Chemistry of Green diamonds

The Ocean Dream diamond was subjected to detailed and exhaustive evaluation by the Gemological Institute of America, and it's final conclusion was that the extraordinary deep bluish-green color of the diamond resulted from it's exposure to natural radiation over millions of years in the earth's crust.

Green diamonds do not fit into any one of the two accepted classes of diamonds, type I and type II diamonds.

Type I diamonds contain minute quantities of nitrogen impurities - less than 0.1 % - and account for 98 % of all naturally occurring diamonds. Nitrogen imparts a yellow color to diamonds, whose intensity depends on the concentration and distribution of Nitrogen atoms in the crystal structure.

Type II diamonds are nitrogen-free or contain undetectable quantities of nitrogen. They are sub-divided into two :- type IIa and type IIb

Type IIa - They are nitrogen-free and structurally perfect, and the resulting diamonds are absolutely colorless - D-color or top-color diamonds. They account for 1-2 % of all naturally occurring diamonds. OR 

They are nitrogen-free and structurally imperfect, resulting in a range of fancy colors such as pink, red, purple, brown etc. They account for about 0.1 % of all naturally occurring diamonds.

Type IIb - They are nitrogen-free but instead contain trace quantities of Boron as impurities. It must be noted that both nitrogen and boron have atomic sizes comparable to that of carbon, and therefore could be easily accommodated in the crystal structure. Boron imparts a blue color to the diamonds and makes them semi-conducting. They account for 0.1 % of all naturally occurring diamonds.

Green diamonds are also nitrogen-free, but their color is not caused by another impurity or plastic deformation of the crystal structure. Instead long exposure of the diamonds to natural irradiation caused them to absorb magenta wave lengths which imparts the green color. The intensity, and distribution of green color depends on the type of radiation to which the diamond was exposed. If the diamonds were exposed to alpha radiation emanating from radioactive sources such as naturally radioactive uranium compounds, the green color may be just skin-deep as alpha radiation does not penetrate deep enough. However if the diamond crystals were bombarded by beta or gamma radiation that penetrates deeper into the crystal, the diamond gets colored to a greater depth and occasionally the entire interior of the stone turns green.

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