Ice Cold: Exploring The Unique Relationship Between Hip Hop And Jewelry – Josh Wilson (Forbes Magazine – July 24, 2022)

https://www.forbes.com/

What goes through your mind when you see some of hip-hop’s heavy hitters sporting exorbitant jewelry everywhere they go? Do you think they’re just living their best life, or they’re being irresponsible with their money?

The world of hip-hop is unique in many ways. It is one of the most expressive art forms available today. It’s common, expected even, to see some of the biggest names in the genre donning expensive diamonds, gold studs, rings, bracelets, grills, and watches. And with shows like Youtube docuseries, “Ice Cold,” where stars like Migos, A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, and French Montana show off their bling, it seems they’re clamoring for every opportunity to exhibit their collections.

Read more

What to expect in 2024 after diamond sector’s price plunge – by Paul Zimnisky (Mining.com – February 25, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

It’s been a tough ride for the diamonds sector since rough prices hit an all-time high in the first quarter of 2022. Last year rough prices fell 15-20% according to the Zimnisky Global Rough Diamond Price Index. Prices are now down about 25% from their early 2022 high.

So what happened to cause prices to tumble? The pandemic years brought generational volatility to diamond supply. In 2020, production dipped to the lowest levels since the 1990s. A recovery in 2021 through 2023 ensued. However, the new “normal” for output is still some 15-30 million carats below pre-2020 levels.

Read more

Detecting Lab-Grown Diamonds That Deceive – by Jennifer Heebner (Rapaport Magazine – February 26, 2024)

Home

As Guy Borenstein gears up for Stuller’s Bench Jeweler Workshop in March, there’s one hot topic that will be addressed for the fifth consecutive year: synthetic diamonds. There’s no shortage of available equipment to detect lab-grown diamonds. According to the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), there are about 40 instruments on the market that aim to discover natural versus synthetic diamonds.

“Five years ago, I asked attendees how many were screening for lab-grown diamonds [LGDs] and one hand went up,” says the director of gemstone procurement for the Lafayette, Louisiana-based manufacturer. That number has grown as the years passed, but “the majority are still not checking,” he adds.

Read more

New York Diamond Dealers Upbeat Amid Tight Supply – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – February 22, 2024)

Home

Demand is slow, but India’s import freeze is still having an impact.

Retail restocking is slow after a decent but not record-breaking holiday. The diamond market is uncertain about the rest of the year, and while inflation has eased, interest rates remain high. Yet despite the sluggishness on the demand side, New York dealers are reporting firm pricing on the local and Indian markets. This is mostly because there aren’t enough diamonds coming out of India; the inventory surplus that froze the market in 2023 has abated.

The market is soft in general, but particularly in round, D to Z goods, said Nilesh Sheth, president of New York-based polished supplier Nice Diamonds. Fancy shapes and colors are still moving well, he noted. In this context, “we are only adding items available at attractive prices,” Sheth revealed.

Read more

Lab-grown diamonds come with sparkling price tags, but many have cloudy sustainability claims – by Isabella O’Malley (Associated Press – February 13, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The muted sounds of hammering and sanding drift down to the first floor of Bario Neal, a jewelry store in Philadelphia, where rustic artwork that mimics nature hangs on warmly-lit walls.

Waiting for one of those rings is Haley Farlow, a 28-year-old second grade teacher who has been designing her three-stone engagement ring with her boyfriend. They care about price and also don’t want jewelry that takes a toll on the Earth, or exploits people in mining. So they’re planning on buying diamonds grown in a laboratory.

Read more

ON ST VALENTINE’S DAY, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (Gript – February 14, 2024)

Home Two

According to the wedding website theknot.com, February 14th is actually not the most popular day to get engaged; that day is December 25th, Christmas Day. However, Valentine’s day is up there in the top 5 for the ultimate romantic gesture.

Valentine, the 3rd Century Roman Christian who tied the knot for piles of young couples in spite of emperor Claudius’s commands forbidding marriage, would be pleased you feel. Not recently though. Weddings for the first half of the year in 2020 were at about 2% of the previous year. Not even old Claudius had such a wedding-killing hit rate.

Read more

Lab Diamonds Are Too Perfect for Their Own Good – by Amanda Mull (The Atlantic – February 7, 2024)

https://www.theatlantic.com

The traditional diamond industry is thought to be under threat from lab-grown stones. But that’s not how luxury works.

Last year, a funny thing happened at Ring Concierge’s Manhattan showroom. A bride-to-be brought her engagement ring back to the popular jewelry store after wearing it for a few weeks and wanted to trade out her diamond for a worse one.

The woman was worried that the original rock was too clear, too bright, too perfect for its large size, Ring Concierge’s CEO, Nicole Wegman, told me. She wanted to replace it with a lower-quality stone of a similar size—something a little less bright white.

Read more

Why Bangkok Is the Go-To Spot for Colored Stones – by Richa Goyal Sikri (Rapaport Magazine – January 24, 2024)

Home

The Thai life: A steady gem supply and a history of expertise continue to attract cutters and dealers to the Asian hub.

Thailand has long served as a center for colored gemstones. Its ruby and sapphire deposits and its strategic location — neighboring the gem-rich nations of Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia and Vietnam — have enabled the Thai gem industry to develop multigenerational knowledge and skills in mining, treatment, cutting, polishing and trading.

Political turmoil in Myanmar — starting with the Japanese invasion in 1942, and later a nationalization spree by the government — led to an influx of ruby merchants and miners from Myanmar to Thailand, further enriching the latter country’s gem industry. Among the arrivals was the family of fifth-generation gem merchant Santpal Sinchawla, managing director of Sant Enterprises.

Read more

Military police investigating after $50K in gold and silver coins swiped from post office (CBC News Ottawa – January 25, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/

Investigators say suspect brought along a cart, flashed a fake driver’s licence

Military Police in Kingston, Ont., are investigating the theft of $50,000 worth of gold and silver coins. The alleged crime scene? A post office.

Five packages containing the coins arrived at the Canada Post branch on CFB Kingston around 9:45 a.m. on Jan. 18, police said. Roughly 15 minutes later, someone arrived to claim them, according to investigators.

Read more

Lab-grown diamonds vs mined gems – can YOU spot the difference? – by Rebekah Absalom (Daily Mail – January 26, 2024)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Lab-grown diamonds have gained popularity in recent years thanks to their ethical production methods, affordable pricing and celebrity endorsements. Despite being labelled as ‘fake’ by traditional diamond enthusiasts, man-made and natural diamonds share identical physical and chemical characteristics – even experts struggle to distinguish between the two.

Sales for these sustainable gems achieved a record high last year, drawing significant interest from socially-conscious consumers seeking high quality and responsible sourcing that doesn’t harm the environment.

Read more

Britain’s least valuable coin is in terminal decline (The Economist – January 21, 2024)

https://www.economist.com/

Inflation is the prime culprit for the problems of the penny

For many centuries using Britain’s currency required advanced mathematical skills. The pound was divided into 20 shillings; a shilling was worth 12 pennies; and each penny was further subdivided into two halfpennies or four farthings. Many argued for a more straightforward system. As early as 1696 Christopher Wren was arguing that a decimal system would be “very proper for accounts”.

Wren eventually got his wish. In 1961 the government dropped the farthing, the spending power of which had fallen by so much that bus conductors were refusing to accept it. A decade later, in 1971, decimalisation divided the pound into 100 new pennies, and shillings and halfpennies both stopped being minted.

Read more

Long-Lost Ship Found in the Desert Laden With Gold – by Tasos Kokkinidis (Greek Reporter – January 21, 2024)

https://greekreporter.com/

The discovery of a ship that disappeared five hundred years ago and was found in a desert in southwest Africa with gold coins aboard has been one of the most exciting archaeological finds of recent years.

The Bom Jesus (The Good Jesus) was a Portuguese vessel that set sail from Lisbon, Portugal on Friday, March 7, 1533. Its fate was unknown until 2008 when its remains were discovered in the desert of Namibia during diamond mining operations near the coast of the African nation.

Read more

EU adds Russia’s biggest diamond-mining company and CEO to sanctions list – by Mared Gwyn Jones (Euronews – January 3, 2024)

https://www.euronews.com/

PJSC Alrosa, which is owned by the Russian state, accounts for over 90% of all Russian diamond production, representing a highly valuable revenue stream for the Kremlin.

The EU said Wednesday that Alrosa and its CEO Marinychev had been added to the list of sanctioned persons and entities for “actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” “The company constitutes an important part of an economic sector that is providing substantial revenue to the government of the Russian Federation,” it added.

Read more

Italian Grading Lab Warns of Synthetic-Diamond Scam – by Leah Meirovich (Rapaport Magazine – December 26, 2023)

Home

Italian gemological lab Gem-Tech has warned the trade that a number of lab-grown diamonds circulating in the country are being sold as natural.

Three stones were submitted to the lab accompanied by certificates from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) stating they were natural, Gem-Tech said last week. Gem-Tech weighed the stones and found them to be nearly identical to those recorded on the GIA certificates.

Read more

Perfection in Practice: How Do Emerald Enhancements Work? – by Richa Goyal Sikri (Rapaport Magazine – December 5, 2023)

Home

Keeping the green clean: Treating this precious stone is common in the industry. Five experts offer some clarity on the process.

Rubies, sapphires and emeralds form the most valuable trifecta in the colored-gem universe. But unlike the first two, which measure 9 on the Mohs hardness scale, emeralds rank at 7.5 to 8 and therefore require more care in handling. Due to various formation and extraction factors, it is natural for an emerald to contain fissures and fractures, which is why eye-visible inclusions are more acceptable in an emerald.

Global wealth expansion and the increased awareness and appreciation for emeralds have increased demand for top-notch stones in the face of limited supply. At the same time, connoisseurs of top-grade emeralds are developing less tolerance for inclusions, seeking an unnatural perfection from a natural gem. The result is that miners, lapidaries and merchants have increasingly been using clarity enhancement to meet the burgeoning demand.

Read more