Ultimate guide to
Fancy Yellow Diamonds
What are Yellow Diamonds?
Natural yellow diamonds, also known as canary diamonds, belong to the group of rare Fancy Coloured Diamonds. Due to their exceptional appearance and relatively attractive price, they are one of the most popular coloured diamonds. Their subtle, yet bright appearance creates an unusually warm aura, thanks to which, based on statistics, they find many followers.
Like the rest of the coloured diamonds, yellow brilliants can also be the perfect alternative to a classic colourless diamond engagement ring. They are especially unique because the presence of diamonds in fancy colours ranges from 0.1% to 0.01% of colourless diamonds. This option would be an interesting, yet still elegant choice, that would’ve surely stolen the heart of the beloved one.
The origin of Yellow Diamonds

Isn't yellow hue in diamonds a bad thing?
Yellow diamonds may sometimes be confused with colourless diamonds, which fall closer to “Z” on the colour scale. The cause of that misconception is both a reduction of transparency and occurrence of yellow tint in colourless diamonds, which become stronger, when a diamond is closer to said category. Such diamonds are considered less valuable. To read more on the classification of colourless diamonds visit The 4Cs of Diamonds.
However, if we go further on the colourless diamonds’ colour scale, we’ll get a beautiful, pure colour. That’s where a Fancy Yellow colour scale starts, which influences the diamond’s value gain. Such diamond isn’t classified as a colourless diamond anymore, but a Fancy coloured diamond, while its price is based on a completely different scale than in the case of colourless diamonds.
Colour intensity of Yellow diamonds
• Fancy Yellow
• Fancy Intense Yellow
• Fancy Vivid Yellow
• Fancy Deep Yellow
• Fancy Dark Yellow

Yellow diamonds prices
• Clarity: VS
• Shape: Cushion
• Cut: Good
• Polish/symmetry: Very good
• Complementary hue: None
• Fluorescence: None

Are yellow diamonds more expensive than colourless diamonds?

• Clarity: VS 1
• Shape: Cushion
• Cut/polish/symmetry: Very good
• Fluorescence: None

• Larger price differences occur for smaller diamonds – yellow diamonds with a higher hue intensity level are much more expensive than colourless diamonds.
• Yellow diamonds of higher weight and lower intensity are cheaper than colourless diamonds of the same weight.
• The higher the weight of the diamond, the more profitable a yellow diamond with weaker intensity is.
Complementary hues of Yellow diamonds
Yellow diamonds in engagement rings
Famous Natural Yellow Diamonds
The Florentine Diamond, also known as the Tuscan Diamond, is by far the most fascinating one due to its missing status. This 137.27 Ct diamond had been handed over from king to king when it was eventually lost by Charles the Bold during the Battle of Morat. It was then reportedly found by a foot soldier, who sold it for 2 francs, thinking it was glass. Since then, its whereabouts remain unknown.
The Incomparable Diamond was found in the Congo by a young girl playing in a pile of rubble. Before the cutting, it weighed 890 Ct. The family then sold it to a jeweller, who later cut it into a 407.78 Ct triangle-shaped diamond. This extraordinary diamond is named the largest diamond of IF clarity and the third largest cut diamond in the world.
The Tiffany Yellow Diamond is one of the largest yellow diamonds in history, which original weight was 287.42 Ct. It was found in 1878 in the Kimberley mine, where it was later cut into a cushion shape, changing its weight to 128.54 Ct. It has 24 more facets than the traditional cut (82 facets in total), maximizing its brilliance. Nowadays, it can be found in the Tiffany & Co. flagship store in New York.
