Bhavani Gems has achieved a manufacturing marvel by producing the world’s smallest certified cut and polished diamond (Bhavani Mikro) with 57 facets weighing just 0.0003 carat or 0.00006 grams (3,333.33 per carat).

This is the smallest diamond certified by an Independent Internationally recognized Laboratory called IGI (International Gemological Institute).

PAINITE has in years past been described by the Guinness Book of World Records as the rarest gem mineral. As of early 2005 there were eighteen known specimens, all numbered and accounted for.

Specimen No. 5 has been faceted into an oval and weighs 2.54 carats. Pricing can be fickle with such oddities, but in 2011 I saw a very fine one on sale for about $1800.00 per carat.

Painite is pink to red to brown in color, very strongly pleochroic (showing different hues from different angles) and it fluoresces a lovely green under short wave UV.

It comes from Mogok and Kachin State in Myanmar and was named after its discoverer, British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Pain.

The black diamond is a type of diamond found only in Brazil and the Central African Republic. The composition and origin of black diamonds set them apart from other diamonds, and from other gemstones of all kinds.

The use of these diamonds ranges from practical to mystical, but it is the black diamond's uniqueness that makes it most interesting.

The Blue Hope

Perhaps the most infamous of beautiful jewels is the Blue Hope, weighing 45.52 carats, and named after purchaser Henry Thomas Hope. Its history begins calmly though obscurely, since it is believed to be the same “Blue Tavernier Diamond” that was discovered in 1642.

This diamond was purchased by King Louis XIV who had the stone cut to 67.50 carats from 112 carats to further emphasize its brilliance. It was stolen during the French Revolution and never officially recovered. However, some claim that this is the same diamond that Henry Thomas Hope purchased in 1830. Following the purchase and subsequent inheritance, Henry’s son lost his fortune.

It was purchased by Mrs. Edward McLean, who then experienced a number of fatal events within her family leading to her own suicide. The legend of the diamond grew and rumors of a curse abounded, to the extent that no one wanted to even touch the stone when renowned diamond merchant presented it in 1949. This “cursed” diamond can currently be seen at the Smithosonian Institute in Washington