Natural Fancy Coloured Pink Diamonds are amongst the world's rarest and highly sought after diamonds. Australia's Argyle Mine is the world's foremost source of todays Natural Pink diamonds but even then only a handful of gem quality diamonds are mined each year. Other countries of origin include South Africa, Brazil, Borno and India. Pink diamonds are expensive because they are so scarce.

Some diamonds are enhanced to give them their fancy colour. Certain types of brown diamond can be irradiated to produce fancy pink colours. Pink diamonds that have been coloured by irradiation are inexpensive compared to natural pink diamonds because they are not so rare.

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

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.

Natural Pink diamonds have always been exceptionally rare. In the 16th century and for several hundred year, India was the World's main source of Natural 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 (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 in Australia that a small vein of pink diamonds was discovered that things really started to get exciting. Instead of being light pink and faint in colour, these new diamonds were a much deeper pink. Australia is now producing about a 100 carats a year however of those the vast majority of gems are under one carat. In 1989, the Australian Argyle Mine sold two Natural Pink Diamonds over 3 carats. It is rumored these stones were sold for $700,000 per carat. You can expect to pay over $100,000 per carat for a 1-carat natural pink, and around $30,000 per carat for smaller stones under 1/2 carat.

The extreme scarcity of gem quality natural pink diamonds has meant that only a privileged few of the ultra wealthy have owned them in the past. It is this rarity, coupled with their natural beauty that has made them a high-demand item at the world's top jewellery auction houses. In 1994, Christie's in Geneva sold a 19.66 ct Natural 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 amongst the highest prices ever paid for natural fancy coloured diamonds.

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 proposed to Jennifer Lopez with a large natural pink diamond. Ever since their engagement, articles about natural pink diamonds have been popping up in the media everywhere. Sadly their relationship wasn't quite as secure the handmade setting of the diamond!