Even if you are not a gemologist or luxury fan, if you think the name Moussaieff, rings a bell. Probably it is due to the fact that is the rarest diamond that exists in the world. This 5.11 carat radiant red stone is internally flawless. In 1990, it was discovered in New York. When found, it was originally named as “Red shield”, but after its sale to Moussaieff Jewelers' Ltd, it came to be known as Moussaieff red diamond.

Amazing history :

It was discovered by a Brazil farmer in the mid 1990’s. The rough state of the stone weighed 13.90 carats and found in the alluvial deposits of diamond mining areas. Later it was acquired by the William Gold Berg diamond corporation of New York. They transformed this spectacular stone into brilliant triangular cut stone weighing 5.11 carats and named it as Red shield. In 2001, it was sold to Moussaieff Jeweler’s Ltd and earned the name as "Moussaieff red diamond". It is exhibited in "The natural history museum" of Smithsonian institution in the year 2005. The exhibition also featured many precious diamonds such as millennium star, heart of eternity, Moon of Baroda, and other rare pink stones. Large amount of people pay visit to the museum only with the intention of looking this tremendous red gem. The brownish hue of this red stone, made it to appear as allotrope of carbon or sapphire garnet. A statistical estimate from Australia has shown that only one carat of red diamond is produced for every one million carats of rough diamond. The probability of occurrence is less than 0.001% every year. Therefore, it is extremely rare in occurrence.

Reason for red color :

The public perception is that colorless diamonds are well known and more popular among the naturally occurring substances. In contrary, there are few colored diamonds which are increasingly used in the jewelry trades. Due to the impact of the nitrogenous impurities, 98% of all natural stones appears in yellow and brown color and falls under type-I category. The next 1-2% of the stones is commonly colorless. The remaining are the extremely rare fancy color diamonds and grouped under type –II diamonds. They are absolutely nitrogen free. The parent material for all naturally occurring substance in found beneath the earth. The rare red stone have undergone a rigorous plastic deformation in their crystal structure while raising it from the mantle region of the earth to surface. Thus, deformed areas absorb light from various region of the spectrum, resulting in the fancy red color. The combined characteristics of rarity and beauty make the stone unique among all the available expensive stones.

Record breaking sale :

The Paris diamond dealer, Edwin Street, purchased the Hancock diamond for $880,000. This was the recorded sale in the year 1987. Henceforth, red stone is the only gem that is sold for the huge sum of $8 million. This was the record breaking sale in the history of diamonds.