The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-03
DIAMONDS HARD 70 sell
SURPRISES FOR PEOPLE WHO
HAVE GEMS TO DISPOSE
DEALERS OFFER LOW PRICES
ESiems Worth Less Than Twenty
Years AGO-Their Value Also
Affected by Style in
Cutting.
DEALERS OFFER LOW PRICES

In spite Of the general advance in the
price of diamonds owing to the war IN
South Africa diamonds today are worth
50 per cent less than twenty years ago,
says the New York Sun. Yet the belief
is firmly fixed in the minds of a great
many persons, judging from the inquiries
made of jewelers., that diamonds are a
safe Investment and that their value
rarely, If ever, fiuctuates. Diamond deal
ers are constantly receiving visits from
people who think that diamond pur-
chased years ago has retained its value
and that they will have little or no
trouble in getting for it almost, if not
quite as much as they paid perhaps
twenty years ago. To the average dia-
~<nond dealer these people are, as a gen.
eral thing, a source of annoyance for the
reason that they are always incredulous
when told of the change in value dia-
1onds have undergone. When the jewel
offers them, say 20 per cent, of what
.ey paid for the stone years ago, they
generally regard it as an absurd propo-
Ettion and make for the next dealers
only to find that his price is the Same
and that the possession which they had
looked as valuable asset has depreciat-
ed in value.
AS a matter Of fact, in these days dia-
monds are much like stocks in being up
in value one minute and perhaps down
the next. The Boer war Of course, Is
largely Responsible Tor CnlS. Inc largest
source of the worlds diamond supply be-
ing in the territory affected, the market
for diamonds has been uncertain ever
since hosdlttfes began. Diamonds today
are worth so per cent more than they
were just before the trouble in the
Transvaal started. Even with this alb
normal influence on the market, dia-
monds have not reached the prices Of
twenty and thirty years ago, for the rea-
p son that the output today Is about
third greater than then.
That is one of the reasons why per-
sons with heirlooms in the way of gems
to sell do not get the prices they ex-
pect Another reason Is that the style
of cutting has changed almost as radical
1y as the fashions in clothes Today to
the diamond dealer a stone purchased
twenty years ago is in appearance as old
fashioned as a suit Of clothes of that
period is to the tailor Instead of being
cut oval or cushion-shape as diamonds
were then, stones today are cut round,
thus increasing the number of surfaces.
1t used to be the style to have large
table, as the upper surface Of a diamond
IS called, and to obtain this a stone was
cut in the form of a cushion. This style
was changed not many years ago upon
the discovery that by cutting a stone
round and increasing the number Of
bevels, its brilliancy was greatly increas-
ed This style has come to be adopted
to the exclusion of all others and a dia-
mond's value today depends upon its size
when reduced to this form.
All diamonds Of an old-fashioned cut
ting can be reduced to the round form
and as a result of the process greater
brilliancy is added to them, but the
change from the old to the new shape
IS not accomplished without consider
able loss in size. Hence a diamond he r
doom brought to the dealer to be convert
ed into. cash is apt to be less valuable
as a trade article than its owner mag
Ines. If 1t was purchased more than
twenty years ago he will be indeed lucky
If he realizes a third of its original
price
The other day a man made a tour of
the diamond houses in Maiden lane with
a pair of diamond earrings for which
he paid twenty years ago $700. In all
but two places the stones were pro-
nounced faultless but old-fashioned The
highest offer he received anywhere for
them was $50, although he expected
three times as much.
THAT only illustrates, said a diamond
expert, what a hard thing it is to sell
diamond jewelry and get anything like
what you paid for It. Diamond dealers
< are constantly compelled to disabuse
peoples minds of the idea that because
they have good-loobing diamonds they
ought to get a big price. Diamonds are
q great deal more plentiful than they
were when a great deal of the 1ewelry
that Is offered for sale was brought It
is not so very long ago that the Kim
berley mine was the only one in South