Coloured diamonds (especially pinks, yellows and blues) have been exciting gem collectors and creating a stir at auctions for the past few years. All throughout, however, the grey diamond has been steadily gaining popularity for its understated elegance as a central stone. Mined from Australia, India, South Africa and Russia, natural fancy grey diamonds get their colour from a high concentration of hydrogen or boron. Many grey diamonds also contain hints of violet, green, yellow or blue.
As the technology for cutting diamonds come about until the 15th century, darker-hued grey and black stones were in fact, the first historical diamonds. It is for this reason that throughout much of history, diamonds were black or graphite grey in appearance, and were represented as such in paintings before the Renaissance.