Natural pink diamonds are some of the world's rarest and highly sought diamonds. The Argyle Diamond Mine in Australia is the world's foremost source of pink diamonds but even then only a handful is mined each year. Other countries of origin include Borneo, South Africa, Brazil and India. Pink diamonds are expensive because they are scarce.

Some diamonds are irradiated to produce fancy colours, including pink. Pink diamonds that have been coloured by irradiation are very cheap compared to natural pink diamonds because they are not rare.

Most pink diamonds mined are faint to light coloured (Pastel coloured) Most of the deep coloured pink. Common names include: bubble gum, strawberry, raspberry, rose, wine, baby, blossom, and cotton candy.

High temperature and non-isotopic stress during diamond formation deforms the crystal lattice and displaces many carbon atoms from their normal positions. Hair like graining is also evident in some of them.

Pink diamonds have always been exceedingly rare. In the 16th and 17th centuries, India was the principal source of pink diamonds. Recently, a famous light pink Agra diamond was sold at auction for almost $7 million. This stone was documented as being a gift to Babur, the first Mogul emperor, from the Rajah of Agra, for sparing his life in 1526. It later belonged to the Duke of Brunswick, the greatest connoisseur of coloured diamonds of the 19th century. In 1725, Brazil produced some light pink diamonds. The Star of Brazil is a 128.80 carat rose coloured gem, which was cut around 1832 in Amsterdam. An Indian gem collector paid 80,000 British pounds for it in the 1860s. It remains in India today. In 1947, Dr. John Williamson discovered a 23.60 pastel pink round diamond in Tanzania.

It was not until 1979, when Australia discovered a small vein of pink diamonds that things really got exciting. Instead of being faint or light pink, these new diamonds are hot pink. They are producing about a 100 carats a year. The majority of gems are under one carat. In 1989, the Australian mine, Argyle, sold two pinks over 3 carats. It is rumored these stones were sold for $700,000 per carat. Expect to pay over $100,000 per carat for a carat size pink.

The extreme scarcity of pink diamonds has meant that only a privileged few have owned them in the past. It is this scarcity, coupled with their beauty that has made them a high-demand item at the world's top jewelry auctions. In 1994, Christie's in Geneva sold a 19.66 ct Fancy pink for $377,483 per carat (about $7.4 million). In 1995, Sotheby's sold a 7.37 ct Fancy Intense purplish pink for $818,863 per carat, or just over $6 million. These are among the highest prices ever paid for gemstones.

Of course, the rarity of colour affects prices. The pricing of pink and red diamonds is rarely disclosed in public, though it's not uncommon to be hundreds of thousands of dollars per carat. A 0.95-ct. purplish red diamond was sold at auction in 1987 for close to a million dollars, for example.

Pink diamonds gained great interest when Ben Affleck adorned Jennifer Lopez's hand with a large pink diamond. Ever since J. Lo's engagement, articles about pink diamonds have been popping up in new media everywhe