At the recent stop in Iowa the question of blood diamonds was raised to Sen. John Edwards.

Sen. Edwards replied “I don’t even know what that term is” and when it was explained to him he commented “Can I tell you I have had probably hundreds of town hall meetings. I have literally never been asked that question.”

He did say that “I certainly know about the movie. But I would have to give that more thought that I have to give you an honest answer to it”.

Personally I think this just goes to show how focused some of us get with our own issues. I can’t think of anyone in the jewelry industry that has never heard of the issue, but I can see it being a non issue for a lot of people. I know that in our own store we have not had more than a couple of customers ever raise the issue. The only time it ever seems to be raised is when a diamond salesman brings it up in an effort to  sell his line to us.

The next evolution in diamond inscription, the Gemory Gemsafe diamond inscription process allows you to add as many as 100 pictures to a diamond without affecting it’s lab report ratings. Using a laser process similar to having a serial number inscribed on the girdle of a diamond, you can have any picture added to a facet of your diamond or other gemstone.

How much more sentimental can you get than having your wedding photo on your diamond, or a series of pictures on the diamond as it’s handed down from mother to daughter? I think that this may be one of the coolest diamond news items for 2008, and we are still in January!

If you bought a diamond between January 1, 1994, and March 31, 2006, you may be eligible for a piece of the $295 million settlement with DeBeers. The settlement is part of an agreement entered in to by DeBeers for anticompetitive practices while not admitting any wrong doing.

While some people are saying that you could get several hundred dollars for as small of a purchase as $2,000, I just don’t see it. The math doesn’t work.

In any case, if you would like to be a part of the class action lawsuit, you need to fill out a claim form before March 19, 2008. If you want a shot at getting a few dollars from DeBeers head over to the Settlement Website and fill out the form there.

The hope diamond is one of those truly unique gems. One of it’s coolest features is that it glows a red-orange in ultraviolet light. And even cooler, it will continue to glow for up to 5 minutes once it is removed from the UV source.

Researchers have discovered that all blue diamonds phosphoresce, and that glow is so unique that a spectroscopic examination can be used to identify each individual blue diamond. It can even be used to separate lab grown blue diamonds from natural blue diamonds.

You can read more about this at the Science Daily.

On Saturday French auction house Guizzetti-Collet sold a 6.5 carat blue diamond for €2.43 million ($3.56 million), which totaled $547,692 per carat. The hammer price came to more than three times the stone’s estimated value of between €500,000 and €700,000.

The Reims-based auction house said that the “blue intense homogenous” diamond with “extraordinary” coloration, was taken from a ring bought in 1962 by the owners of a champagne house.

An international company specializing in buying precious stones placed the winning bid by phone, according to AFP. The company’s name was not released.

The massive 493 carat rough diamond was sold to Graff Jewellers of London for $10.4 million. That’s an amazing $21,000 per carat against the average of $81 per carat for most rough diamonds.

Named the Letseng Legacy for the Letseng le Terai mine is was found in, the diamond joins the recently sold Lesotho Promise, an 84.37 carat round brilliant diamond in Graff Jewellers growing collection of rare and exquisite diamonds.

Rio Tinto Diamonds 23rd annual Argyle pink diamond tender has set record breaking prices. Every year Rio Tinto sells the year’s harvest of pink diamonds from purpleish reds to deep pinks.

This year 65 diamonds were tendered and sold to 17 bidders. While exact prices are not being disclosed, Rio commented that such diamonds are known to command more than $400,000 per carat.

The 2007 Argyle Signature Stones tender attracted approximately 100 bidders due to several very rare finds, including a rare grey-violet diamond and sever deep purplish-red diamonds.

The Argyle mine currently supplies roughly 90% of the world’s pink diamonds and the Argyle Signature Stones are the pick of the very best.