a common sense says. " Diamonds are a girls best friend" Marlyn Monroe was singing. " Because of my sex and profession I am not crazy about diamonds, but it is true, they are the most precious gemstones" says Mr Stanislaw Krzystof Jacobson - a diamond expert from Gdansk. Sean Connery as James Bond knew that "Diamonds are forever". " A diamond is the most beautiful gemstone, it enjoys the eyes" says a Warsaw craftsman - Mr Andrzej Koprowski - who has been in the business since 1965.
The name “diamond” derives from the ancient Greek adamas and means invincible. The name covers the main feature of these gemstones - hardness. "Diamonds can be scratched only by other diamonds as they are so hard" says Mr Pawel Szcześniak a diamond expert from Warsaw. The diamonds are formed by the prolonged exposure of carbon bearing materials to high pressure and temperature. They are the hardest known naturally occurring material. "A diamond is the hardest thing in the world. There is no harder element" confirms Mr Szczesniak.
Because of its extraordinary physical properties, diamonds have been used symbolically since near the time of their first discovery, dated around 296 BCE. It is said the Greeks believed diamonds were tears of the gods, the Romans believed they were splinters of fallen stars. " Diamonds are not magic stones, above all it is promoted" states Mr Jacobson.
Leaving the occultist issue and supernatural powers of the diamonds open, nobody argues with the financial aspect of them. " In the long-term perspective the purchase of diamonds is a good investment because the physical features that define their value don't change with time" explains Mr Tomasz Sobczak - a diamond expert with a family tradition in the field. "Diamonds – are the most simple way to pass family property between generations without paying the required taxes" adds Mr Sobczak. "Diamonds are a luxury product but they are everywhere. They are not a delicacy anymore. You simply need to want them" says Mr Szczesniak. There is no doubt that diamonds are business. Diamonds which have been prepared as gemstones are sold on diamond exchanges called bourses. There are 24 registered diamond bourses. According to the authors of Rio Tinto Group, in 2002 the diamonds produced and released to the market were valued at US$9 billion as rough diamonds, US$14 billion after being cut and polished, US$28 billion in wholesale diamond jewelry, and retail sales of US$57 billion.
A key role in the diamond business is the estimation of a gemstone’s value. "In order to know the value of a diamond we need to evaluate the 4 C's" says Mr Sobczak. The first C stands for Carat - heaviness. The special diamond weight measures the mass of diamond - shows Mr Sobczak. " In Poland people buy engagement rings with diamonds between 0,15 - 0,20 carat" says Mr Szczesniak. The second C is Clarity. It is the measurement of the internal defects of a diamond called inclusions. The less inclusions a diamond has the better it is. "An inclusion can be black. It means that carbon atoms didn't transform properly" demonstrates Mr Szczesniak. The third C is Colour. A chemically pure and structurally perfect diamond is perfectly transparent with no hue or colour. The connoisseurs check the colour only in the case of white diamonds. They need to estimate their whiteness. They do their job by using a special set of the diamonds. It is either called a master colour set or a colour grading set. The experts gathered at GIA - Gemological Institute of America , the most important authority in gemology - mark the best whiteness of a diamond with a letter D. According to the RAL scale it is called River. The names derives from a diamonds' famous mine. The fourth C is a cut that is the art and science of creating a gem-quality diamond out of mined rough. When the 4 C's are evaluated, the experts use the Rapaport Diamond Report as a retail price baseline to calculate and next communicate the price of a diamond to customers. "It takes 40 minutes for a beginner to estimate the value of a diamond, it takes me 2 minutes, I have everything in my mind" states Mr Sobczak - the author of 13 books about these gemstones.
The diamond industry can be divided into two categories: one dealing with gem-grade diamonds and another with industrial-grade diamonds. It derives from a fact that only 5% of mined diamonds are suitable for use as gemstones, the rest - 95% - known as bort are destined for industrial use.
The chain of the gemstone diamond industry starts with mining. The next steps are wholesale trade and diamond cutting. They are worldwide and also exist in Poland yet only a few locations count as major players like New York, Antwerpen, London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Surat.
Today the most known diamond deposits being actively mined are located in Africa, Canada, Siberia, Brazil and Australia. In some of the more politically unstable central African and west Africa an countries, revolutionary groups have taken control of diamond mines, using proceeds from diamond sales to finance their operations. Diamonds sold through this process are known as conflict diamonds or blood diamonds. In response to public concerns that their diamond purchases were contributing to war and human rights abuses in central Africa and west Africa, the diamond industry and diamond-trading nations introduced the Kimberely Process in 2002, which is aimed at ensuring that conflict diamonds do not become intermixed with the diamonds not controlled by such rebel groups. The Kimberley Process provides documentation and certification of diamond exports from producing countries to ensure that the proceeds of sale are not being used to fund criminal or revolutionary activities. Poland has already signed this Act.
The Kimberely Process isn't required in the case of synthetic diamonds as they are created by technological actions. Furthermore synthetic colourful diamonds enable consumers to be en vogue at reasonable price. Natural colourful diamonds are extremely expensive. Only Hollywood stars and the most well off can afford a bargain of a few million like Ben Affleck who proposed to Jennifer Lopez with an engagement ring with a natural pink diamond. The price of this simple ring is cosmic. In Poland there is one company that sells the synthetic diamonds imported from Belarus.
The Polish market of diamonds seems to be rather small. "People aren't rich"says Mr Marian Makieła - a Warsaw diamond expert who entered into the diamond business during a diplomatic stay in India. "I believe the market will increase as our society is getting richer and richer" he says. Things were completely different some time ago. "After the 2nd world war one could go to jail because of a diamond" says Mr Sobczak. " A diamond was tabu in Poland" adds Mr Jacobson. The first wind of a change was in 1989 with the collapse of an ancient regime. The market started to be open. Joining European Union has helped Poland to regulate the procedures and obtain financial help in order to create a national training system within Polish Gemological Association (Polskie Towarzystwo Gemmologiczne) and Association of Jewelry Experts (Stowarzyszenie Rzeczoznawcow Jubilerskich).
Each country has its particular features, top experts etc. yet "there are no two identical diamonds. Each diamond is unique" says Mr Sobczak and perfectly sums up a phenomenon of the diamonds that in western cultures symbolize never - ending love.
A joke as a funny illustration to the article.
Friday afternoon, New York, Fifth Avenue, a couple enters the most luxurious jewelry shop on the street. The woman looks like a top model. One can see the relationship is at the first stage of picking -up. "Can you show me the most beautiful diamond ring" the man asks the shop assistant. "Yes, of course" - answers the shop assistant. The customer isn't satisfied so the shop assistant shows him the most expensive ring in the shop. " Try" says the man to the woman. She does. "Are you happy" asks the man. "Of course" says the woman and almost wants to jump on him. The activity of a payment arrives. " I have only a cheque" says the man. "So we have a problem" says the shop assistant. "Hmmm you know, just take my cheque and verify it, I'll come back on Monday" says the man and the couple leave the shop. Monday passed, Tuesday and Wednesday passed and the man didn't appear in the shop. On Thursday the shop assistant meets the man by accident on the street. " Why did you give me a false cheque, are you crazy???" asks the shop assistant. " Listen, you had a good weekend, I had a good weekend, everybody was happy so where's the problem??" asks the man.
The name “diamond” derives from the ancient Greek adamas and means invincible. The name covers the main feature of these gemstones - hardness. "Diamonds can be scratched only by other diamonds as they are so hard" says Mr Pawel Szcześniak a diamond expert from Warsaw. The diamonds are formed by the prolonged exposure of carbon bearing materials to high pressure and temperature. They are the hardest known naturally occurring material. "A diamond is the hardest thing in the world. There is no harder element" confirms Mr Szczesniak.
Because of its extraordinary physical properties, diamonds have been used symbolically since near the time of their first discovery, dated around 296 BCE. It is said the Greeks believed diamonds were tears of the gods, the Romans believed they were splinters of fallen stars. " Diamonds are not magic stones, above all it is promoted" states Mr Jacobson.
Leaving the occultist issue and supernatural powers of the diamonds open, nobody argues with the financial aspect of them. " In the long-term perspective the purchase of diamonds is a good investment because the physical features that define their value don't change with time" explains Mr Tomasz Sobczak - a diamond expert with a family tradition in the field. "Diamonds – are the most simple way to pass family property between generations without paying the required taxes" adds Mr Sobczak. "Diamonds are a luxury product but they are everywhere. They are not a delicacy anymore. You simply need to want them" says Mr Szczesniak. There is no doubt that diamonds are business. Diamonds which have been prepared as gemstones are sold on diamond exchanges called bourses. There are 24 registered diamond bourses. According to the authors of Rio Tinto Group, in 2002 the diamonds produced and released to the market were valued at US$9 billion as rough diamonds, US$14 billion after being cut and polished, US$28 billion in wholesale diamond jewelry, and retail sales of US$57 billion.
A key role in the diamond business is the estimation of a gemstone’s value. "In order to know the value of a diamond we need to evaluate the 4 C's" says Mr Sobczak. The first C stands for Carat - heaviness. The special diamond weight measures the mass of diamond - shows Mr Sobczak. " In Poland people buy engagement rings with diamonds between 0,15 - 0,20 carat" says Mr Szczesniak. The second C is Clarity. It is the measurement of the internal defects of a diamond called inclusions. The less inclusions a diamond has the better it is. "An inclusion can be black. It means that carbon atoms didn't transform properly" demonstrates Mr Szczesniak. The third C is Colour. A chemically pure and structurally perfect diamond is perfectly transparent with no hue or colour. The connoisseurs check the colour only in the case of white diamonds. They need to estimate their whiteness. They do their job by using a special set of the diamonds. It is either called a master colour set or a colour grading set. The experts gathered at GIA - Gemological Institute of America , the most important authority in gemology - mark the best whiteness of a diamond with a letter D. According to the RAL scale it is called River. The names derives from a diamonds' famous mine. The fourth C is a cut that is the art and science of creating a gem-quality diamond out of mined rough. When the 4 C's are evaluated, the experts use the Rapaport Diamond Report as a retail price baseline to calculate and next communicate the price of a diamond to customers. "It takes 40 minutes for a beginner to estimate the value of a diamond, it takes me 2 minutes, I have everything in my mind" states Mr Sobczak - the author of 13 books about these gemstones.
The diamond industry can be divided into two categories: one dealing with gem-grade diamonds and another with industrial-grade diamonds. It derives from a fact that only 5% of mined diamonds are suitable for use as gemstones, the rest - 95% - known as bort are destined for industrial use.
The chain of the gemstone diamond industry starts with mining. The next steps are wholesale trade and diamond cutting. They are worldwide and also exist in Poland yet only a few locations count as major players like New York, Antwerpen, London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Surat.
Today the most known diamond deposits being actively mined are located in Africa, Canada, Siberia, Brazil and Australia. In some of the more politically unstable central African and west Africa an countries, revolutionary groups have taken control of diamond mines, using proceeds from diamond sales to finance their operations. Diamonds sold through this process are known as conflict diamonds or blood diamonds. In response to public concerns that their diamond purchases were contributing to war and human rights abuses in central Africa and west Africa, the diamond industry and diamond-trading nations introduced the Kimberely Process in 2002, which is aimed at ensuring that conflict diamonds do not become intermixed with the diamonds not controlled by such rebel groups. The Kimberley Process provides documentation and certification of diamond exports from producing countries to ensure that the proceeds of sale are not being used to fund criminal or revolutionary activities. Poland has already signed this Act.
The Kimberely Process isn't required in the case of synthetic diamonds as they are created by technological actions. Furthermore synthetic colourful diamonds enable consumers to be en vogue at reasonable price. Natural colourful diamonds are extremely expensive. Only Hollywood stars and the most well off can afford a bargain of a few million like Ben Affleck who proposed to Jennifer Lopez with an engagement ring with a natural pink diamond. The price of this simple ring is cosmic. In Poland there is one company that sells the synthetic diamonds imported from Belarus.
The Polish market of diamonds seems to be rather small. "People aren't rich"says Mr Marian Makieła - a Warsaw diamond expert who entered into the diamond business during a diplomatic stay in India. "I believe the market will increase as our society is getting richer and richer" he says. Things were completely different some time ago. "After the 2nd world war one could go to jail because of a diamond" says Mr Sobczak. " A diamond was tabu in Poland" adds Mr Jacobson. The first wind of a change was in 1989 with the collapse of an ancient regime. The market started to be open. Joining European Union has helped Poland to regulate the procedures and obtain financial help in order to create a national training system within Polish Gemological Association (Polskie Towarzystwo Gemmologiczne) and Association of Jewelry Experts (Stowarzyszenie Rzeczoznawcow Jubilerskich).
Each country has its particular features, top experts etc. yet "there are no two identical diamonds. Each diamond is unique" says Mr Sobczak and perfectly sums up a phenomenon of the diamonds that in western cultures symbolize never - ending love.
A joke as a funny illustration to the article.
Friday afternoon, New York, Fifth Avenue, a couple enters the most luxurious jewelry shop on the street. The woman looks like a top model. One can see the relationship is at the first stage of picking -up. "Can you show me the most beautiful diamond ring" the man asks the shop assistant. "Yes, of course" - answers the shop assistant. The customer isn't satisfied so the shop assistant shows him the most expensive ring in the shop. " Try" says the man to the woman. She does. "Are you happy" asks the man. "Of course" says the woman and almost wants to jump on him. The activity of a payment arrives. " I have only a cheque" says the man. "So we have a problem" says the shop assistant. "Hmmm you know, just take my cheque and verify it, I'll come back on Monday" says the man and the couple leave the shop. Monday passed, Tuesday and Wednesday passed and the man didn't appear in the shop. On Thursday the shop assistant meets the man by accident on the street. " Why did you give me a false cheque, are you crazy???" asks the shop assistant. " Listen, you had a good weekend, I had a good weekend, everybody was happy so where's the problem??" asks the man.
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