Origin of name
The "Royal Purple Heart" diamond gets it's name from two
important characteristics of the stone, the color and the shape, both of
which are unique for this diamond. The unique purple color of the stone is
an extremely rare color among diamonds, as rare or even rarer than red color
in diamonds. the perfect heart-shaped cut of the diamond brings out
the brilliance of the natural purple color of the stone. Thus the two unique
characteristics of the stone, the color and the shape, have been
appropriately combined together to give the name of the stone.
The Characteristics of
the stone
The diamond is a fancy vivid purple, I-1 clarity ,
heart-shaped stone weighing 7.34 carats, and it is the largest fancy vivid
purple diamond known to exist.
History
The Purple Heart diamond is believed to have originated
in Russia, and the rough stone was cut into it's perfect heart shape by
Julius Klein Diamond Corporation. Besides the above facts nothing else is
known about this unique diamond. Even the present owners of the diamond are
not known.
Rarity of occurrence
Purple and red colors are the rarest of all colors in
naturally colored diamonds. The rarity of these colors combined with their
exceptional beauty, make these diamonds the most expensive and much sought
after diamonds in the world. An interesting feature of these rare diamonds
is that the rarity of the color is always combined with the smaller size of
the stone. The world's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd largest red diamonds are only 5.11,
5.05 and 5.03 carats in weight respectively, and most of the rare red
diamonds are less than one carat in weight. Like wise purple colored
diamonds are also smaller in size. The "Royal Purple Heart" is only 7.34
carats in weight. Purple diamonds of over 5 carats in weight are very highly
prized and are as expensive as red diamonds.
Chemistry of purple
colored diamonds
Diamonds are crystalline forms of Carbon, in which the
crystal unit consists of a Carbon atom surrounded by four equidistant Carbon
atoms, at the four corners of a regular tetrahedron. This unit is repeated
forming face-centered cubic unit cells. Diamonds crystallize in the
isometric crystal system which eventually result in the octahedral and cubic
crystal forms commonly seen in naturally formed diamond crystals.
Diamonds originated deep inside the surface of the earth
about 200 Km below the surface in the earth's mantle, at least 3 billion
years ago. The crystals subsequently rose to the surface of the earth along
kimberlite and lamproite pipes.
During the formation of the diamond crystals, certain
other atoms, besides Carbon, which had atomic sizes comparable to that of
carbon, such as Nitrogen and Boron, were also incorporated into the crystal
structure as impurities. Nitrogen was the commonest impurity that entered
the structure of diamonds, so much so that almost 98 % of all naturally
occurring diamonds contained trace quantities of Nitrogen (less than 0.1 %),
imparting a range of yellow colors to diamonds, from a slightly yellowish
tint to the more intense yellow colors, such as the canary yellow, depending
on the concentration and distribution of Nitrogen atoms. Such diamonds, that
contain detectable quantities of Nitrogen are known as type I diamonds.
Therefore only 2 % of all naturally occurring diamonds do
not contain Nitrogen, and such diamonds are known as type II diamonds.
However a very small percentage of type II diamonds (0.1 %), can contain
trace amount of Boron atoms as impurities, which impart a blue color to the
diamonds. Such diamonds are known as type IIb diamonds. The remaining type
II diamonds are free of any impurities or contain undetectable quantities of
Nitrogen and are generally absolutely colorless. These diamonds are known as
type IIa diamonds. D-color diamonds or top-color diamonds come under this
group.
A very small percentage of type IIa diamonds, may have
undergone plastic deformation of the crystal structure due to twisting and
bending of the tetrahedral units as the crystals rose to the surface from
the earth's mantle. Such deformed areas in the crystal can absorb visible
light in different regions of the spectrum imparting rare fancy colors to
diamonds such as pink, red, purple, orange, brown etc. Such diamonds are
also less than 0.1 % of all naturally occurring diamonds. Therefore purple
diamonds are plastically deformed type IIa diamonds.
