Diamonds - Nothing But a Brilliant Illusion

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So today I’m a guest poster over at Frugal Fringe, the Colorado-based "all things frugal" blog written by my friend A. Noonan Moose. Click the link at the end of the excerpt to read all about how my husband and I have been misleading folks for years (they didn't ask and we didn't tell) and why it was the right decision, at least for us. 

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I love my engagement ring. My husband designed the set (engagement ring and wedding ring) and it means the world to me. It’s unique and beautiful in its simplicity…

…and the diamond is a fake. 

When we discussed our rings, we decided that my ring’s design would include a pear-shaped diamond and we started shopping for it to ensure we could find it in plenty of time before the Big Day. One stop during our hunt for the right gem was a jewellery store at a local mall. There, we saw a stone that fit our shape and size requirements and the saleswoman started speaking to us about the characteristics of that particular stone—you may be familiar with the 1938-born classic 4Cs: cut, colour, clarity and carat.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed a major flaw in the stone that ran diagonally through it for nearly its entire length. The saleswoman said it was a feather (read: a crack inside the stone itself that affected its durability and clarity). She insisted that this feather was a feature unique to this stone, stressing that features such as this are characteristic of real mined diamonds and help differentiate them from man-made alternatives. I didn’t have to be a gemologist to understand that was a load of bunk. And the price of this one-carat pear-shaped gem in 2000? A cool $6,000!

Keep reading . . .