DiamondMaster FAQ>

Diamonds, value
& exchange

One diamond. Twenty-seven ways to measure its value.

A boy’s discovery. Twelve diamond seeds. An economist and gemologist asking what value means when money changes. Follow the stories that connect wider diamond ownership, consumer choice, and DiamondMaster’s comparisons.

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Three faceted round brilliant diamonds shown at different sizes

Same crystal structure. Different journeys.

Nature’s time capsule or a technological achievement?

Mined-Natural

A small object with an immense backstory. Many natural diamonds formed billions of years ago, deep in Earth’s mantle. Their inclusions and crystal structures preserve clues to those conditions. Ages vary: some dated diamonds exceed three billion years, while others are much younger. Explore GIA’s geological timeline.

Exceptional stones can concentrate considerable value in very little weight and volume. Natural color, clarity, and size reflect aspects of geological occurrence and rarity; the finished cut also reflects human decisions and craftsmanship.

Mining, recovery, cutting, polishing, and setting require equipment, energy, time, and skilled work. Those costs help explain the journey to jewelry, while scarcity, demand, grading, and market conditions also shape the price.

Grown-Created

Human ingenuity, working with nature’s rules. Laboratory-grown diamonds are diamond, with a different origin. Controlled growth still depends on carbon, energy, suitable conditions, and time. Modern methods include high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). GIA explains the two origins.

Reproducible diamond synthesis arrived in the 1950s, serving industrial needs for hard abrasives and cutting materials before gem production developed. Read GIA’s synthesis history.

Large, high-quality crystals demand careful growth control. Equipment, energy, yield, and skilled cutting affect production costs. Improvements in technology can expand supply and change prices; production difficulty differs from geological scarcity. See GIA’s research on modern growth.

How did a boy’s pebble help change diamond history?

In the 1860s, Erasmus Jacobs found the rough diamond later named Eureka near South Africa’s Orange River. The approximately 21-carat find helped draw attention to a region whose later discoveries transformed diamond supply and mining. Read the Eureka story at GIA.

One small discovery helped open a much larger world. Over the following century, expanding production, cutting, distribution, and jewelry making helped build a global industry. South African mines, followed by sources elsewhere, brought diamonds within reach of a growing middle class. Ownership extended to many more households, while exceptional sizes and qualities remained scarce. GIA traces that change in accessibility.

The next chapter would expand choice in a different way: learning to grow the diamond crystal itself. That is where Wayne’s twelve-seed story begins.

Durable, compact, nonmetallic—indestructible?

Diamond is extraordinarily resistant to scratching, but it can chip or fracture. Physical durability and a stable resale price are different things. A sale still depends on the individual stone, documentation, buyer demand, and transaction costs. GIA explains diamond toughness.

Diamond is nonmetallic carbon and is relatively transparent to X-rays under suitable conditions. That is a material property, not a promise of invisibility; X-ray methods are also used to study diamonds. GIA discusses X-ray topography.

A founder’s perspective

Twelve seeds. Four carats. A much bigger ambition.

From Wayne D. Prentice’s firsthand recollection

Wayne recalls co-founding Star Corp with Igor and Matt and working with Tom Chatham on Dr. Sergey Ivakhnenko’s early colorless HPHT diamond breakthroughs and development in the early 1990s at the Institute for Superhard Materials (ISM). Wayne’s relationship with Tom went back to the 1980s, when Wayne was a Resident Gemology Instructor at GIA.

Wayne recalls the project being featured in NBC’s Dateline Discovery story on Tuesday, April 4, 1995. Tom introduced this early chapter to a television audience while helping the trade prepare for a new consumer choice—and for the clear origin disclosures that choice would require.

In Wayne’s account, Sergey’s early HPHT vessel could accommodate twelve seeds with a total grown weight of only about four carats. The practical opportunity was initially in melee—small diamonds. He recalls the partners choosing to hold back from melee production and continuing research with ISM toward larger crystals: diamonds that could be cut into centerstones and marketed with their grown origin clearly disclosed.

For Wayne, those twelve seeds make the effort tangible: equipment, experimentation, energy, time, and skilled work, all directed toward a larger diamond and another choice.

Personal history supplied by Wayne for this FAQ; this passage is a paraphrase. More about Wayne’s background.

Today, that choice reaches the centerstone. Advances across HPHT and CVD production have made large, colorless grown-created diamonds more widely available. They can offer comparable color, clarity, carat weight, and cut at a lower purchase price. Both origins offer diamond’s characteristic beauty and durability; their supply, rarity, and market values differ. Explore GIA’s growth research and its consumer comparison.

For the buyer, the question becomes personal: a geological history, a larger stone within a budget, or another priority? Clear disclosure and like-for-like comparisons make that choice informed. They also lead to the next question: how should we measure the value?

A global industry. More ways to take part.

A bigger choice of diamonds, for more people.

Diamond jewelry is a business measured in tens of billions of dollars worldwide. Behind that scale are individual choices: an engagement ring, a family gift, a collector’s stone, or jewelry bought simply for the pleasure of wearing it.

Wayne sees broader choice as a win-win for consumers. Grown-created diamonds can bring a desired size and appearance within a buyer’s budget. Mined-natural diamonds offer a geological story and natural rarity that other buyers prize. A person can appreciate both, choosing differently for different occasions. Clear origin disclosure lets each purchase be valued for what it offers.

Four snapshots of scale—each with its own year and scope
Reported figure	What it measures	How to read it
About US$84 billion 2021 estimate	Worldwide diamond jewelry retail sales in the Bain/AWDC 2021–22 report, figure 18.	A historical benchmark for the scale of consumer spending on finished diamond jewelry; it is not a 2025 market total.
Over US$8 billion 2024 estimate	Global lab-grown diamond jewelry sales reported by Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data.	One analyst’s estimate showing that grown diamonds already support a substantial jewelry market. It cannot be divided by the differently dated figure above to establish a share.
About 105 million carats 2025 estimate	Global natural rough production estimated in AWDC’s January 2026 briefing.	Weight before cutting and polishing, including material that will not become gem-quality jewelry. This is neither a count of finished gems nor lab-grown output.
About US$19.1 billion 2025 trade	Antwerp’s combined diamond imports and exports, reported by AWDC.	Activity through one trading hub, covering rough, polished, synthetic, and industrial diamonds. A stone can cross borders more than once; this is not global retail revenue.

These snapshots illustrate scale, not slices of one market pie. Different years and stages of trade cannot be added together or used to calculate a natural-versus-grown split.

Count the carats. Then count the dollars.

A diamond market can look very different depending on what you count. More affordable grown-created diamonds can account for a substantial quantity of stones without accounting for the same share of spending. A carat measures weight; a dollar figure measures market value.

Polished carats: the physical weight of finished loose diamonds, distinguished from rough production and from the number of individual stones.
Wholesale polished value: the value of those loose diamonds at the wholesale stage, before the finished jewelry is sold to a consumer.
Retail diamond jewelry revenue: consumer spending on finished pieces, including their settings, other materials, design, craftsmanship, and retail services.

These are three different views of the market. Comparing natural and grown shares requires the same year, geography, and market definition. Production costs and consumer demand help shape the result; a volume share alone cannot establish rarity, resale value, or future returns.

A longer view from Bain. Wayne includes Bain & Company’s global diamond reports among his industry references. The Bain and Antwerp World Diamond Centre Global Diamond Industry 2021–22 report separately examines mining, cutting and polishing, and jewelry retail. It also describes grown diamonds becoming a more affordable jewelry category as supply expanded and technology advanced—historical context for today’s consumer choice. Read the 2021–22 Bain/AWDC report.

What shaped 2025? De Beers’ year-end account describes geopolitical and tariff uncertainty, continued competition from laboratory-grown diamonds, and differing demand by region, size, and quality. Together, these show why a single explanation cannot capture the whole market. Read De Beers’ 2025 market assessment.

That distinction matters to DiamondMaster: the app compares a selected diamond’s wholesale reference value, while a finished jewel and an actual sale have additional considerations.

Why do reputable sources report different numbers?

Start with what each source measures. Here, GIA supplies gemological research about identity, origin, and properties; Bain/AWDC supplies dated industry analysis; AWDC’s Antwerp figures measure trade through that hub. An analyst’s retail sample answers another question again.

For example, Edahn Golan describes retail price data drawn from 2,500 U.S. jewelry retailers, while its wholesale price series tracks transactions in India. Neither sample by itself represents all global consumers. Read the data definitions. A share of U.S. engagement-ring sales, a share of worldwide carat weight, and a share of global jewelry spending are different measures.

Do ruby and sapphire offer a helpful parallel?

They offer a long history of choice. GIA traces synthetic ruby to the late 1800s and Verneuil’s announcement of his flame-fusion process in 1902. Grown sapphires also appear in early twentieth-century jewelry. These are grown forms of corundum, sharing the essential properties of their natural counterparts, and are available at a range of prices. Explore GIA’s synthetic-gem history.

Natural rubies and sapphires remain important fine-jewelry gems, with origin, treatments, and individual quality central to understanding them. Read GIA’s colored-stone research. The two origins have coexisted for more than a century. That history supports the possibility of serving different preferences within the same love of gemstones.

Wayne sees an affordable grown ruby or sapphire as a possible introduction to that appreciation. A buyer may later seek a natural gem for its rarity, history, or a special milestone, while continuing to enjoy the grown gem. This is his perspective on consumer opportunity, rather than an established pattern for every buyer or proof that grown gems have had no effect on natural-gem markets.

For someone considering a natural gem as a store of wealth, natural origin is only the starting point. Quality, treatments, documentation, the purchase price, and future buyer demand all matter; lasting beauty does not guarantee a resale price.

Can more choice benefit buyers while changing the trade?

Yes. Lower prices can make a purchase possible or allow a buyer to choose a larger stone. Some purchases may be additional occasions; others may replace a natural diamond purchase. More stones sold does not necessarily mean more total dollars spent.

Wayne’s positive view centers on informed consumers: room for natural rarity, room for grown beauty, and respect for the buyer’s priorities. Measuring how much the overall market expands requires consistent data over time. DiamondMaster helps people compare the choices without asking them to take sides.

History & motivation

The gemstone stayed the same. The measuring stick kept moving.

DiamondMaster grew from Wayne’s experience at the meeting point of economics, gemology, production, and international trade. He wanted a diamond guide that could distinguish a change in the asset’s reference value from a change in the currency used to quote it.

Economics first, then gemology. Wayne earned a BA in Business Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before studying at GIA and becoming a Resident Instructor of Colored Stones and Gem Identification. Economics supplied questions about value and exchange; gemology supplied ways to understand and compare the stones.
1992–2007: across changing economies. Wayne describes repeated trips and work in Russia, Ukraine, and Sakha after the Soviet Union’s collapse as formative experiences. Seeing gem resources, production, and changing monetary conditions together influenced his interest in the relationship between physical assets and money.
After September 11: a need for a global guide. Wayne identifies currency volatility in the years after 2001, alongside changing diamond distribution, as the catalyst for an independent price reference. He wanted to bring together information from diamond exchanges, cutting factories, and market offerings, and express it across currencies.
September 2007: the Troy Diamond Report. The guide brought those interests together before the 2008 financial crisis reinforced the question. DiamondMaster later put that comparative approach into an app: choose a diamond, choose a Cost unit, and examine the result.

Motivations and travel history are Wayne’s account. His education, GIA teaching, and the report’s September 2007 debut are also described in a 2012 company announcement archived by the SEC. Read Wayne’s biography.

What was changing in the diamond trade?

Wayne saw a need for independent comparisons as the industry moved beyond its older, centralized distribution model. De Beers’ “Supplier of Choice” arrangements were part of that changing commercial landscape; the European Commission cleared that system in 2003. Read the Commission’s contemporary account.

Traceability was also receiving greater attention. The Kimberley Process began in 2000, and its rough-diamond certification scheme took effect in 2003. The U.S. Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003 implemented U.S. participation. Its focus on conflict diamonds did not make the entire trade conflict-free or resolve every ethical sourcing question. Read the Kimberley Process history and scope and the Congressional Research Service account.

How does Wayne’s 2008 patent application fit the story?

Wayne Douglas Prentice filed the application titled Multi-use durable goods card and system on May 26, 2008. It was published on November 26, 2009 as US20090289107A1. The published record describes a broader durable-goods registry and card system with valuation, ownership, and credit functions.

The direct connection is in claim 17: it proposes maintaining a durable good’s value using a commodity reference, an energy unit, or a weighted currency basket, then converting that reference into local currency. This documents Wayne’s interest in alternative measures of value before DiamondMaster’s current release.

Wayne recalls choosing not to pursue the application to completion as cryptocurrency emerged in 2009. Google Patents lists it as abandoned; it is a published application, not a granted patent. Its broader registry and credit proposals are not features offered by DiamondMaster. Read the application, including claim 17.

From a currency amount to a quantity of resources

Wayne’s motivation is to look beyond dependence on fiat currencies and the monetary and credit systems behind them. He favors comparisons with tangible resources: the weight of a precious metal, and the energy, time, and skilled work involved in producing a durable asset. For him, these offer a useful perspective on utility and exchange.

The idea has ancient roots. Surviving Egyptian gold ornaments date to the fourth millennium BCE—roughly 5,000–6,000 years ago. Long before modern apps, people valued and worked the same physical material. Explore the Metropolitan Museum’s gold history. That long material history is distinct from a continuous gold standard or a promise of unchanged purchasing power.

DiamondMaster makes the comparison concrete: what is this diamond reference worth in grams of gold, ounces of silver or platinum, a currency basket, or a crypto asset? It uses market conversion rates, rather than calculating a stone’s embodied labor or energy. Production cost, physical usefulness, and exchange value remain different measures.

Change the measuring stick

If the dollar price rises, did the diamond gain value?

Relative to what? A price is an amount expressed in a unit. A diamond’s physical usefulness, its production cost, and the quantity of other goods it can buy are related questions, but they are not interchangeable. Changing the unit can reveal a different story.

DiamondMaster uses XDR-denominated diamond reference values and converts them into the selected Cost unit. USD is one choice among many. This gives comparisons a common calculation basis; it does not eliminate currency effects or measure a universal “true value.”

This is the practical expression of Wayne’s original motivation: retain a global reference, offer several measuring units, and let the comparison show how a diamond’s reference value has changed relative to each one.

The subscriber toolkit

What are the 27 Cost units?

The current subscriber selection combines 12 fiat currencies + 2 basket references + 6 precious-metal units + 7 crypto assets. Each provides a different denominator for the diamond calculation.

12 fiat currencies

USD: U.S. dollar
EUR: Euro
JPY: Japanese yen
CHF: Swiss franc
CAD: Canadian dollar
GBP: Pound sterling
AUD: Australian dollar
BRL: Brazilian real
RUB: Russian ruble
INR: Indian rupee
CNY: Chinese renminbi
ZAR: South African rand

6 precious-metal units

XAU: Gold, 1 troy ounce
XPT: Platinum, 1 troy ounce
XAG: Silver, 1 troy ounce
XDEN: Denari: gold, 1 gram
XCEN: Centum: gold, 100 grams
XMIL: Milia: gold, 1 kilogram

The gram-based choices are for gold. Platinum and silver are listed in troy ounces. XDEN, XCEN, and XMIL are DiamondMaster’s labels for these gold weights.

2 basket references

XDR: IMF Special Drawing Right (SDR)
XUNT: DiamondMaster’s calculated reference for “THE UNIT” basket

These have different institutional status and construction. Read the explanations below before comparing their histories.

7 crypto assets

BTC: Bitcoin
ETH: Ethereum
LTC: Litecoin
ADA: Cardano
SOL: Solana
PAXG: PAX Gold
ZEC: Zcash

Without an active subscription, the app uses older demonstration data and a smaller selection. Calculations respond to your selections immediately; exchange-data refreshes depend on connectivity and source availability and are checked on roughly a 24-hour cycle. Compare subscriber and demo access.

From metal to monetary networks

What stands behind the unit?

Why measure a diamond in gold or silver?

Gold and silver connect today’s comparisons to a long history of commodity money. Expressing a diamond in metal weight asks a tangible question: how much of that metal is equivalent to this reference value today? The Bank of England explains commodity and fiat money.

Precious metals have served as money and stores of wealth across many periods. Their purchasing power still changes. A formal gold standard—currency convertibility at a fixed gold price—is a specific monetary arrangement, distinct from the much older use of gold itself. Read the historical distinction.

Do “dollar” and “denarius” tell a story?

They do. “Dollar” developed from “thaler,” the name of a European silver coin. The name carries a silver-coin history rather than literally meaning a unit of weight. Follow the name at the ANA Money Museum.

“Denarius” refers to its original denomination of ten asses. It also appears as a day’s wage in some ancient accounts, which makes the connection to work evocative—but that wage association is not its literal etymology. Brown University explains the coin and purchasing power.

What changed when Nixon closed the gold window?

On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the conversion of dollars into gold for foreign official holders. This was a decisive step in the breakdown of the Bretton Woods monetary system. Read the Federal Reserve history.

The term “petrodollars” describes dollar revenues from oil exports and their circulation through trade and investment. It does not describe a gold-style promise to redeem dollars for oil. The New York Fed explains petrodollar recycling.

Gulf currency policies also differ: Kuwait, for example, has pegged its dinar to a currency basket since May 2007. See the Central Bank of Kuwait’s policy.

What is XDR, and why does DiamondMaster use it?

The IMF’s Special Drawing Right is an international reserve asset, with a value based on the U.S. dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, and pound sterling. It is not a currency used for ordinary retail payments. IMF: Special Drawing Rights.

The weighting method uses exports and financial indicators, rather than GDP alone. See the IMF’s SDR definition. DiamondMaster uses XDR as a common reference basis, allowing the same diamond selection to be expressed in dollars, metals, crypto, and other units.

What is “THE UNIT,” and what does XUNT represent here?

The UNIT project proposes a network of nodes, each holding a corresponding reserve basket, with blockchain coordination. Its white paper describes a gold-anchored design and basket rules. Treat this as the project’s proposal, not evidence of adoption as an official common BRICS currency. Read the UNIT white paper.

The project dates its initial “Pumpkin Batch” to October 31, 2025, with 40% gold and equal portions of BRL, RUB, INR, CNY, and ZAR. See the project’s basket record.

DiamondMaster’s XUNT calculation models a reference basket with this structure:

0.4 gram gold + qBRL + qRUB + qINR + qCNY + qZAR

Here each q is a fixed amount of its currency, initially equivalent to 0.12 gram of gold at the selected base date. The five currency portions initially total 0.6 gram of gold-equivalent value. Their later values fluctuate; the basket is not permanently equal to one gram of gold.

XUNT is the app’s reference label. A displayed conversion does not provide a token, reserve ownership, or redemption right. Historical values before the basket’s inception are reconstructed comparisons, not observed UNIT trading prices.

Bitcoin, PAX Gold, stablecoins, meme coins—what is different?

Network-native crypto assets such as BTC, LTC, and ETH depend on their respective protocols and markets. With self-custody, control of the private keys carries both the ability to transact and responsibility for protecting access. Holding assets at an exchange adds a custodian to that relationship. Ethereum’s wallet guide explains custody.

Asset-backed tokens add a different promise. Paxos describes PAXG as representing one fine troy ounce of gold held in London vaults and publishes monthly reserve attestations. PAXG therefore combines a gold reference with issuer, custody, and token-market considerations. Paxos’s asset descriptions and PAXG attestations.

Dollar stablecoins target a dollar value; gold-backed tokens target a specified gold interest. The backing and redemption terms are product-specific. Meme coins generally rely on community interest and market demand rather than a claim on redeemable metal or currency reserves. These categories should not be treated as equivalent.

Can the app tell me which is “sound money”?

It can help you ask a more precise question: which unit has gained or lost relative to this diamond reference over the periods shown? Wayne’s interest in enduring assets and alternative units motivates these comparisons.

Two historical percentage changes do not establish volatility, liquidity, or future purchasing power. Consider what you mean by stability, which goods you need to buy, the time period, and the cost of an actual transaction. DiamondMaster offers a way to compare reference values, not a prediction of a future winner.

Your turn

Keep the diamond. Change the denominator.

Choose a mined-natural diamond. Keep its shape, size, color, clarity, cut, and global multiplier unchanged.
Start with USD, then switch to XAU. Compare the per-carat and total reference values, then the 1-year and 5-year percentage changes.
Try XDR, XUNT, BTC, or PAXG. Ask what changed: the diamond reference, the exchange unit, or both?

These are reference conversions for comparison. DiamondMaster does not execute trades or guarantee that a diamond can be sold or exchanged at the displayed amount. Read the reference-value disclosures.

Open the app guide Ask about DiamondMaster