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Orange diamonds are considered an anomaly. A pure orange diamond is extremely rare, making such a diamond the ultimate possession for diamond collectors. Although the presence of an orange hue is not as rare in diamonds as some other hues, the GIA rarely grades an orange diamond as 'pure' orange. Therefore orange diamonds that are graded as pure are rarer than the elusive red diamonds.
What makes a diamond orange?
To be classified as a fancy colour orange diamond, there must be a complete absence of brown in the stone. Pure orange diamonds are treated as rarer than greens, pinks, or blues. However, from the position of the connoisseur, the only thing holding back the price of these diamonds is that orange is not a primary colour. In terms of the colour scale orange is in close proximity to yellow. Collectors therefore tend to prefer reds, blues and greens to orange diamonds. As is the case with red diamonds, the relative rarity of orange diamonds means there is a gap in gemmological knowledge about the stones. What is known is that most diamonds in the orange colour range are considered dark in tone and are weak to moderate in terms of saturation. As the colour orange is a mixture of the primary colours red and yellow, natural fancy orange diamonds range from brown-orange to yellow-orange, with most stones having a brown or brownish colour appearance to the naked eye.
The seven natural colour grades for natural fancy coloured orange diamonds are faint orange, very light orange, light orange, fancy, fancy intense orange, fancy vivid orange and fancy deep orange. Fancy vivid and fancy deep are the most desired hues.