Lab-created diamond vs. mined diamond -- what are the differences?

[WarmNPrickly]

Yes, lab rubies and emeralds are quite common.

[Chronos]

And they can be friggin’ huge. I’ve seen plans for scientific instruments which called for several 40 kg flawless sapphires. The technology for synthesizing corundum (rubies and sapphires, depending on color) is much further along than for diamonds.

[aruvqan]

@dangermom

Question: can one manufacture rubies and emeralds in labs? AFAIK there aren’t many mines for those stones anymore, and they’re actually more valuable than diamonds.
(I’d rather have a lab diamond personally, but I don’t have any gems at all because I’ve never wanted any that badly.)

Yup …

[md2000]

@DrDeth

@kayaker

“Used” diamonds can be a great deal. A friend of mine was drinking at a local bar. The drunk woman he started a conversation with was in the process of leaving her husband, who she discovered was having an affair. They bought each other a few rounds of drinks. The woman ran out of cash, wanted to keep drinking, and offered my buddy her beautiful engagement ring for whatever cash he could scrape up.

My buddy got a large diamond that night for $45. Another hundred to get it placed in a necklace.

That’s a pretty standard con.

A pretty lame con. Since a diamon of appreciable size is well over $1,000 and I assume even a cubic zirconia placed in a fake ring costs quite a few bucks, let’s say $25 to be close to presentable as beyond crackerjack-prize quality - why would anyone settle for $45??

The whole story just sounds weird, sounds more like the old cement Cadillac or $50 Porsche story.

[salinqmind]

I want Robby the Robot to whip me up a gown covered with sapphires, but only if they’re big enough :).

Now I want some lab-created diamonds. Emeralds will do, too.

[Mijin]

@md2000

A pretty lame con. Since a diamon of appreciable size is well over $1,000 and I assume even a cubic zirconia placed in a fake ring costs quite a few bucks, let’s say $25 to be close to presentable as beyond crackerjack-prize quality - why would anyone settle for $45??

Well, it was for “whatever cash he could scrape up”.

She probably went through the whole elaborate thing expecting him to be able to offer more. Then, she elected to take the 45 dollars rather than try to excuse herself out of the situation.

Or it’s legit and events just happened to parallel a common confidence trick.

[kayaker]

@Mijin

@md2000

A pretty lame con. Since a diamon of appreciable size is well over $1,000 and I assume even a cubic zirconia placed in a fake ring costs quite a few bucks, let’s say $25 to be close to presentable as beyond crackerjack-prize quality - why would anyone settle for $45??

Well, it was for “whatever cash he could scrape up”.

She probably went through the whole elaborate thing expecting him to be able to offer more. Then, she elected to take the 45 dollars rather than try to excuse herself out of the situation.

Or it’s legit and events just happened to parallel a common confidence trick.

The stone was valued at around two grand when my buddy had it removed from the ring and set for a necklace.The only person who was (maybe) taken advantage of was the woman. She was drunk and hating her ex; she wanted to keep drinking. When she woke up the next day she likely regretted not selling her ring for closer to the actual value.

The other “real” con was my buddies wife. Although he got the stone for next to nothing while he was out at a bar without her, he never told her, leaving her to believe he had scrimped and saved to get her a fantastic necklace.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

In one of Arthur C. Clarke’s books (I think it was 3001), he predicted that the Empire State Building would someday be covered by an ultrathin layer of sprayed artificial diamonds, preserving it forever (or at least until the Sun expanded and fried the Earth).