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Found in 1840 -

They were first found by miners in the Chapada highlands of Brazil around 1840. That's why they are still today called "carbonado," because they resembled tiny pieces of charcoal.

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Rare but tough -

Natural black diamonds are quite rare. There have reportedly only been about three metric tons mined around the world, but they're one of the toughest forms of natural diamond.

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Where they’re found -

Black diamonds, or carbonado diamonds, are only found in Brazil and the Central African Republic.

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The color -

This jewel’s natural black color actually comes from many small, dark-colored inclusions and fractures; they're more accurately called "polycrystalline," a material of amorphous carbon, graphite, and diamond. Most can be opaque, others may have a speckled appearance. Some are black but have a dark brown or dark green body.

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A different kind of sparkle -

Though black diamonds don’t sparkle the same as regular diamonds, they offer a beautiful kind of glittering with a metallic shine.

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Not found deep in the Earth -

Unlike crystalline diamonds, carbonados are never found in igneous rock deep within the Earth. Instead, they occur in higher-up sedimentary deposits.

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Outer space origins -

Because the carbonado diamond is mined close to the Earth's surface, it suggests that the diamond actually originates not on Earth but rather from outer space.

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Outer space origins -

Carbonado also lacks traces of minerals found deep in the Earth's mantle, and instead contains a mineral called osbornite, which is found only in meteors, further bolstering the belief that these gems have extraterrestrial origins.

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Outer space origins -

Black diamonds are believed to originate from space via meteoric impacts or from asteroids containing diamonds colliding with the Earth.

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They’re extremely old -

Black diamonds are reportedly around 2.6 to 3.2 billion years old, which dates back to a time before dinosaurs existed. That explains why they're only found in Brazil and the Central African Republic.

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They’re extremely old -

During that period in the Earth's history, present-day Brazil and the west coast of Africa are said to have formed a kind of "supercontinent," which would explain how a diamond-bearing meteorite hitting Earth at that location would distribute carbonado as we find it today.

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For reference -

The Earth itself is around 4.65 billion years old, so black diamonds are at least more than half the age of the Earth.

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Potential supernova origins -

Other types of diamonds have meteoric origins, like lonsdaleite, but it's believed that the physical impact of the meteor hitting the Earth may account for the unusual properties in the diamond, like lonsdaleite's hexagonal crystal structure. But researchers Jozsef Garai and Stephen Haggerty offered a different origin theory for black diamonds.

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Potential supernova origins -

They argue that black diamonds might have been formed in supernovae explosions, which sent chunks of the material flying and colliding with Earth, arriving with their unusual properties already formed from the explosion.

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Durable enough to drill -

This carbonado, prized for its cutting and grinding effectiveness, has greater durability compared to traditional crystalline diamonds. That’s why it has been used in industries like mining or drilling, dating back to even the construction of the Panama Canal in the late 1800s.

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They weren’t thought fit for jewelry -

Throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries, jewelers found the black diamond too difficult to cut and polish and left it for industrial use instead.

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Mystic meaning -

Black diamonds are believed to not only symbolize love, purity, and loyalty, but also passion and power. In Italy, it was reportedly thought that merely touching a black diamond could help save a couple's marriage, and any problems were supposed to just enter into the stone when the couple touched it.

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The Gruosi Diamond -

Lebanese fine jeweler Fawaz Gruosi (pictured), founded the Swiss high jewelry brand De Grisogono, which favored black diamonds before other jewelers had caught on, and the Gruosi Diamond—the famed heart-shaped stone which is the largest heart-shaped black diamond and the fifth-largest black faceted diamond on the planet—was named after him. The stone is now part of a white gold necklace that also displays 378 colorless diamonds, 58.77 carats worth of small black diamonds, as well as 14.10 carats of tsavorite garnets.

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Fawaz Gruosi’s role -

Grousi is credited with reintroducing black diamonds to the general public by creating a beautiful black diamond jewelry and watch collection back in 1996—kicking off a trend that remains strong to this day.

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The Spirit of Grisogono -

The second-largest black diamond ever to be part of the black diamond collection of Fawaz Gruosi was found in Central Africa and named The Spirit of Grisogono. It’s a 312.24-carat mogul cut diamond, which was reportedly cut from a 587-carat rough stone. Pictured here is Gruosi with his wife Caroline Scheufele, co-president of luxury jewelry company Chopard, who is of course wearing some black diamonds.

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Even Barbie wore them -

In 2003, a Barbie was sold at auction to benefit the French Red-Cross, and she was dressed in clothes by Roberto Cavalli and decked out in Gruosi’s De Grisogono jewelry, which was a tiny layered necklace of gray gold set with 1.7 carats of white diamonds, 0.76 carats or black diamonds, and four black pearls.

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The Black Orlov -

The 67.5-carat diamond Black Orlov, originally 195 carats, is said to have been stolen in India in the early 19th century. It’s also known as the Eye of Brahma Diamond, as it supposedly featured as one of the eyes in a statue of the Hindu god Brahma in Pondicherry, until it was stolen (by whom is unclear) and subsequently cursed.

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The Black Orlov -

According to legend, in 1932, diamond dealer J. W. Paris reportedly took the diamond to the US, where he soon after jumped to his death from a skyscraper. Later owners of the diamond are rumored to have included two Russian princesses, Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky and Nadia Vygin-Orlov (after whom the diamond is named), who also both allegedly jumped to their deaths in the 1940s.

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The Black Orlov -

The allegedly "cursed" diamond was later bought by Charles F. Winson, and cut into three pieces in an attempt to break the curse. The 67.5-carat Black Orlov was then set into a frame of diamonds, and suspended from a necklace of—you guessed it—more diamonds. Some people still won't go near it!

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Korloff Noir Diamond -

The Korloff Noir Diamond is one of the world's largest known black diamonds, with 88 carats and 57 edges. Before it was cut and polished, it had 421 carats! The diamond is named after the Korloff-Sapojnikoff family, members of the Russian nobility, who once owned it. Later, French jeweler Daniel Paillasseur bought it, and founded the Korloff Company. Legend has it that this diamond brings luck and prosperity to those who touch it.

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The Enigma diamond -

The impressive 555-carat, 55-sided Enigma black diamond, which weighs about the same as a banana, went on sale at US auction house Sotheby's in February 2022, where it sold for US$4.3 million in cryptocurrency.

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The Enigma diamond -

Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Richard Heart took to social media to announce that he was the anonymous buyer, and told his Twitter followers that as soon as the diamond was in his possession he would rename it the "HEX.com diamond," after the blockchain platform he founded.

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The Enigma diamond -

There are competing theories about the origins of the Enigma, though Sotheby's described it as "one of the rarest, billion-year-old cosmic wonders known to humankind," which, as you've seen, might not be wrong! 

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National Black Diamond Month -

National Black Diamond Month, celebrated in January, was made official in 2015 thanks to a clever jewelry designer named Carole Shoshana who conveniently has her own black diamond collection, which she says was inspired by her spiritual journey, keeping the mysticism of the black diamond alive. 

See also: A history of jewelry

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