The Monarch Diamond

"Should Jewelers start warning customers that the diamond they're buying could be treated for color, but there is no way of knowing for sure?"

That's a direct quote from Jewelers Circular Magazine, Sep 1999 page 92. What they are talking about, along with everyone else, is what could be "The greatest gemological crisis to hit the diamond industry!" That's at least what Gemological Institute of America President William Boyajian said at a recent symposium. The Monarch Diamond is a non-detectable, color-enhanced, treated diamond that is now on the market and creating havoc.

The diamond is the brain child of General Electric & Lazare Kaplan and sold through a company called Pegasus Overseas Limited. In a nut shell here's what they do. They take an inexpensive brown or yellow diamond, heat it at high temperature and pressure and bake out the nitrogen or boron present to make it white. Like a twice-baked potato, with one exception, this one will leave a bad taste in your mouth!

Baked diamonds, or annealed diamonds as some people refer to them, though they are undetectable to labs or independent appraisers have one major flaw, they are brittle! Moreover treated diamonds have little or no secondary market value. Insist your diamond comes with a bonding document to guarantee that it is natural or you could just wind up buying one of the most expensive pieces of costume jewelry ever.

*Monarch Diamond* formerly known as Pegasus Diamond.