When most people think of diamonds, it usually brings to mind a clear white colored stone of indescribable beauty. They have the indescribable part right. However the color may not necessarily be so. Many of the world's most intriguing diamonds are vibrant in their color. The shades are of a wide range.

The world's most famous diamond, The Hope Diamond, is a blue color. Although this diamond is extremely beautiful, it has long had the reputation of bringing bad luck to those who owned it.

It was stolen from King Louis XIV during the French Revolution. When it resurfaced in 1830, it was purchased by a gentleman named Henry Philip Hope, who it is still named after. After he acquired it, his entire family died in poverty. Another owner, Edward McLean, suffered a similar fate. This famous diamond now resides in the Smithsonian Institute.

The most well known yellow diamond is The Tiffany. It was discovered in a DeBeers owned mine in 1878. Charles Lewis Tiffany bought it the next year. After the stone was cut, it weighed over 128 carets.

The most unusual famous diamond is The Grand Conde. It is pear shaped and light pink in color. It is said that Louis XIII purchased the diamond and later gave it to the Prince of Conde, Louis De Bourbon. He was a French Army Commander in The thirty Years War.

The Grand Conde Diamond weighs approximately 9 carets.

The Great Chrysanthemum Diamond is an orange- brown color and weighs approximately 104 carets. It has a pear shaped modified brilliant cut. It was found in South Africa and then sold to a jeweler named Julius Cohen. The stone was later purchased by Garrards of London about 2003.

Red, purple, green, and blue are the rarest diamonds. Yellow and brown tinted diamonds are the most common found. The clear colorless, white diamonds are the most sought after for making jewelry. It is found in jewelry stores everywhere.

Colored stones are gaining in popularity due to a wider availability. A process called irradiation can enhance the color of light tinted stones, such as blue and pink. The outer part of a cut and polished stone are beamed with radiation all the way around giving it a darkening of its natural color.

The diamond industry has made this an acceptable process. A diamond that has more intensive colors in their natural state will cost much more than stones that have been irradiated.