"MONGREL" DIAMONDS

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1787, 27 July 1926, Page 2

"MONGREL" DIAMONDS

In diamond diggers' slang all coloured diamonds are "mongrels." Old stagers on the fiehJls woUjld aver the' rare red diamonds at Kimberley to be a " ruby-mongrel" or a hybrid gem, " cross-bred " between a diamond and a ruby. This strange idea, (writes "A Mines Official" in the London Daily Chronicle) is not far -from, the truth The " white" or pure diamond, although scintillating rainbow hues, is a colourless, transparent crystal, with no taint of other mineral. But it is very rarely found. The vast majority of diamonds are smeared or smoked, as diggers put it, with yellow, brown, or grey; these stones, and all the rare red, blue, green, and citron diamonds, derive 'their colours from impurities locked inside the crystal. They are first cousins to rubies, .emera'ldSs, amethysts, and topaz, which derive their characteristic colours -from similar mineral and organic pigments diffused through them. A dull yellow, brown, or grey tint detracts from a diamond's value; but when the impurities imprisoned in it import to it a definite red, green, or aquamarine " glow," then the impure diamond, is more valuable than a pure gem many time s itis size. The new Kimberley red diamond, for instance, is expected to weigh only six caratg when cu ! t, yet to 'be worth £9OO, or £l5O a carat. u3ut less than £22 a carat was the price fetched by a large white stone weighing 149 i carats found at Vaal River a few weeks ago It sold for £3150. Red diamonds are more rare than blue, and blue rarer than green; amher and citron 'diamonds are valuable, but comparatively common . The most famous red diamond ils the Ram's Head, a rose-bluish gem, dug from the Golconda mines in the Xila Hull a mountainfs of Hyderabad more than 200 years ago. It once formed .part of the Russian crown jewels, and was valued at over £20,000, although a small stone. Diamond diggers look with much suspicion on " blue mongrels," aslserting that they " pinch the pipe," or, in other words, indicate that the seemingly rich " pipe " or bed of diamondiferous clay, will yield no more valuable' stones after the discovery of a " The biggest known green diamond, weighs 4SJ carats, is rather ipaler than an emerald, and is now in the Dresden Museum, while splendid citron diamonds were among the Austrian crown jewels. But, valuable as they are, all diamond diggers bear a grudge against these " mongrel" diamonds. Every digger daily discards as worthleiss many bits of coloured quartz, and when a genuine "mongrel" i s discovered the lucky finder becomes the victim of the. painful thought that he miay have thrown away a score of others like it !