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The Bottom Line Summary
Earth-created green diamonds are made green from exposure to radioactivity millions of years ago. Earth-created and lab-created diamonds can be enhanced to become green by a safe kind of radiation within a lab.
Green diamonds are not radioactive. They are rare. Cost ranges from affordable to extravagant. Here’s how to find a green diamond you love at an affordable price.
When shopping for green diamonds, make sure you turn your monitor brightness up, and that you shop from vendors who invest in high-resolution imaging for all their diamonds. Also, only ever shop for any diamond from highly reputable retailers.
Example prices of green diamonds for many budgets can be found at:
Ready to find out how to find a green diamond you love? Even if you think you can’t afford one? Read on!
Two kinds of earth-created green diamonds
By the way: Are green diamonds radioactive? Actually … no. Green diamonds are not radioactive. Surprising details follow here, but that is a question uppermost in some minds. Fear not. They’re safe to wear. Read on …
Outer-Layer Green. Diamonds with green outer layers only (not green through to their cores) are lighter in color. They’re said to have shallow green “skin.” This kind of green diamond was formed from alpha radiation. (Alpha radiation is relatively weak radiation is emitted by some materials when they undergo radioactive decay. It doesn’t penetrate very far, compared to beta radiation or gamma rays.)
Deep Core Green. Diamonds which are deep green right through to their cores have undergone intense beta and gamma radiation. (Beta radiation is 8,000 times smaller than Alpha. Does that mean Beta is weaker than Alpha? To the contrary. It’s much more powerful. It travels much more rapidly through surfaces. And what about Gamma radiation? Gamma rays are the most powerful. They have no mass at all, so they can travel some distance through most solids, including diamonds. Turning them green.)
Green diamonds are the result of radiation. Earth-created green diamonds underwent radiation millions of years ago. They’ve lost all radioactivity over the time they sat in the earth’s crust, awaiting their destiny — to be mined, then cut, and finally purchased and worn as captivating, rare gemstones. They’re not radioactive. They’re not dangerous.
Four kinds of lab-created, treated green diamonds
- “As grown” green lab diamonds. These were created in the lab, from the beginning, as green. The recipe? Mix into the carbon a dash each of nitrogen and boron! Then the diamonds are green from the get-go. This kind of green diamond never underwent any kind of radiation.
- Low-energy electron beam treatment, or “post-growth” treatment green lab diamonds.This treatment is used on almost-white and yellow diamonds to turn them green through and through. Low-energy electron beam treatment is not radiation. But it permanently changes the color to green. It’s the most common, best treatment for creating green diamonds in a lab.
- Green silica coated earth-created diamonds. This is an unacceptable treatment. It’s only a way of making diamonds appear green. The silica is just … a layer green silica. It will wear off. It can’t easily be renewed. Within a few months, or a couple of years at most, you’ll be left with a (low-quality) diamond with uneven traces of green silica on it, appearing neither very white nor very green. So never buy a green diamond which was made to appear green by way of this treatment.
- Actually radioactive salt treatment. (Not done any more, but can you guess why?) This treatment is no longer used. It was used beginning in 1904. The recipe? Pack cut diamonds in radioactive salt. Wait a few weeks. Get them out. But people soon understood: um, this makes the diamonds radioactive! And that radioactivity of the diamonds doesn’t decrease fast enough for them to be rendered safe to wear.
Why are earth-created green diamonds created by radioactivity safe to wear?
The answer lies in the eons that have passed since that radioactivity. Millions or hundreds of millions of years. That’s plenty of time for the radioactivity to dissipate to a safe level.
You shouldn’t find any “radioactive salt treatment” green diamonds for sale today. Certainly not from reputable sellers such as James Allen and Leibish & Co. (I have never heard of such dangerous green diamonds being sold anywhere. They would expensive to make, dangerous to transport, dangerous to sell, dangerous to buy and wear. But at the same time, given that scammers can be exceedingly greedy, cruel, and stupid, and since with the Internet any one scammer’s territory is now the entire earth, I’d personally not buy a green diamond from anyone but a well-known and reputable retailer. Not, for example, from a random eBay seller.)
When buying treated green diamonds, get a declaration of the treatment
When buying treated green diamonds, it’s important to know what kind of treatment they received, if any.
- Treatment-free green diamonds. These are either 1) earth-created diamonds that were green when they were mined, and never treated to make them more deeply green, or 2) Lab-created diamonds in which the recipe included some boron and nitrogen.
- Electron-beam treated green diamonds. These can be either 1) lab-treated or 2) earth-created green diamonds. These are high quality diamonds indistinguishable from treatment-free green diamonds.
- Green silica coated green diamonds. These are diamonds that only look green due to a coating of green silica. They’re not green. Avoid these.
Make sure you can really trust your retailer. Also make sure that they declare any treatments of any green diamonds.
Ask your diamond retailer specific questions about any green diamond.
- “Was it treated?”
- “If it was treated, what kind of treatment was it given?”
Follow with specific questions based on their answers to those opening gambits.
Don’t be satisfied with vague answers.
I’ve done the research at the BBB, at TrustPilot.com, and elsewhere. I can tell you without a doubt that you can depend on the honesty and integrity of the following two retailers. You can also find beautiful samples of green diamonds at each.
(Because I don’t mention a company doesn’t mean I recommend against them. But I’m just one person, so I can’t maintain a list of all the honest retailers of green diamonds. I want to give you at least two that I vouch for with my open personal opinion.)
Is it earth-created? Or is it lab-created?
Because earth-created diamonds are so rare, they’re valuable.
But they’re not easy to tell apart from radiation-treated green diamonds. (Silica-coated cheap green diamonds are easy to spot. Green diamonds created in a lab, or made green in a lab, are virtually impossible to tell apart from 100% naturally occurring green diamonds.)
That’s makes even radiation-treated green diamonds valuable, too. (They’re not all that common in any case.)
Even highly-trained gemologists have difficulty knowing the differences, and in many cases can’t say for sure. (This makes sense, since in many cases the same basic processes were used to create earth-created green diamonds [natural radiation] and lab-created green diamonds [lab-created radiation]).
Does it make a difference if a green diamond is lab-created or earth-created? Treated or not treated?
You’re going to like the answer, I think.
But first, have you noticed so far what the four possible kinds of green diamonds are? They are:
- Earth-created and untreated
- Earth-created but treated with electron beams
- Lab-created with boron and nitrogen in the recipe from the beginning (no electron-beam treatment)
- Lab-created and treated with electron beams
Also, have you noticed the other relevant factors:
- Lab-created diamonds are real diamonds
- Even professionals usually can’t tell the difference between a lab-created and earth-created diamond (green or otherwise)
- Electron-beam treated green diamonds have as permanent a green color as any naturally green earth-created green diamond
- Boron-and-nitrogen-recipe lab-created green diamonds are as permanently green as any earth-created green diamond.
- Professionals usually can’t tell the difference between boron-and-nitrogen-recipe lab-created green diamonds from earth-created green diamonds.
Given all those facts, this is my solid recommendation, and one that many diamond pros would probably agree with:
- It does make a difference under one condition: only if a green diamond is being sold at a premium price as earth-created and untreated.
- It doesn’t make a difference if it is NOT being sold at a premium price as an earth-created, untreated green diamond.
It’s undeniable that people prefer naturally occurring green diamonds, untreated. They seem more meaningful to us. They’re more rare than green diamonds of other kinds of origins.
So people who have the money to pay for documented, pedigreed, earth-created, untreated green diamonds will pay the high prices.
How can you know if a green diamond is earth-created and untreated?
The only way is to see the documentation and deal only with highly reputable retailers that you can trust.
Again, as with any diamond, you’ll see that dealing with a reputable retailer is your beset security when buying green diamonds. Even highly trained gemologists can’t say for sure how a green diamonds was created, or if it underwent radiation in the earth or in a lab. Or if it was made with boron and nitrogen in a lab recipe.
Retailers such as James Allen and Leibish & Co aren’t going to lie to you about their green diamonds. To understand why, let’s think it through. Green diamonds represent a vanishingly small proportion of their business. Most of what they sell, by lightyears, are white diamonds. Their ability to attract a large number of customers to buy the volume of white diamonds they sell depends on their reputations. They’re not going to risk their reputations in order to sell a vanishingly small amount of green diamonds. They’re not going to lie about the origins or the treatments of any green diamonds they sell.
Are radiation treated green diamonds really safe?
Are green diamonds safe to wear? That’s the first question everyone asks when they find out that (usually uranium) radiation is what makes earth-created diamonds come out of the ground green.
The short answer: Yes. Perfectly safe.
Longer, detailed answer: read just below …
Every company located in the United States and which irradiates gemstones must be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The requirements include:
- They must use only accepted, approved ways of exposing the diamonds to radiation. (Most just use electron-beam treatment in any case. These don’t make a diamond radioactive at all. It’s technically a kind of radiation. But it’s not the same kind of radiation that you find in a nuclear power plant for example.)
- If (it rarely or never happens) they use a dangerous kind of radiation, they must put the diamonds on hold, in a safe secure environment, until the radioactivity naturally goes down to a safe level for wearing as jewelry.
Keep in mind that treating gemstones — not only diamond gemstones, but many more — is a widespread practice. Practically all of the blue topaz sold today has been treated with electron beams. It’s just plain transparent topaz which has been treated with electron beams to turn it blue. (Swiss Blue and London Blue are two trademarked terms for the most popular kinds of blue topaz.)
It’s been done for dozens of years. The NRC says:
“The NRC has no reason to believe that wearing irradiated gemstones can be harmful. There have been no reported cases of anyone being harmed by wearing them. There is no safety reason to stop wearing blue topaz or any other irradiated gems.”
Finally, a study that nails it down for you, just so you feel perfectly safe about buying one of these enchanting green diamonds.
- Two diamonds were tested — one that had been treated with electron beams (“irradiated” with electron beams), and one that had not been treated (had not been “irradiated” with electron beams, or otherwise) at all.
- After electron-beam treatment (“radiation”), the “irradiated” diamond had the same extremely low level of radioactivity that it started out with. (Every object in existence, including minerals, plants, and animals, also even humans, naturally have low level of background radiation.)
- And it matched the same extremely low level of radiation as the diamond which had never been “irradiated.”
What are the 8 intensity levels of green diamonds?
- Faint
- Very Light
- Light
- Fancy Light
- Fancy
- Fancy Intense
- Fancy Vivid
- Fancy Deep
What does a green diamond symbolize?
A green diamond symbolizes a little more, or different, than a white diamond does.
Whereas a white diamond symbolizes purity and eternity, a green diamond symbolizes:
- Youth
- Strength
- Environmentalism
- Love of nature
- Wealth
- Ability
- Naturalness, spontaneity, flow
- New beginnings
- The sea
- Rivers
- Forests
- Lush productivity
So a green diamond is a meaningful engagement gemstone choice for a young couple who wants to celebrate their youth. It’s also a fine choice for an older couple who are celebrating a new beginning in life.
Since green diamonds symbolize strength, natural ability, environmentalism, and wealth, and more, they also make fine gemstones for oneself, if you’ve made a commitment to develop these qualities or values.
Like a tattoo, and less painful
In that way, a fancy color diamond (such as green, black, orange), is like a tattoo — just without the ink. You know what it means to you. People will notice it. And when they feel close enough to you, they will ask you about it.
Conversations pieces identify and connect you
This kind of conversation piece is about more than attention. It lets you identify with values that you hold or aspire to. It opens doors for sharing about yourself, and making connections with people who share your values and your expectation in life.
Symbols are powerful. Although the diamond can’t create anything by itself, you’re reminded daily of your dreams, your ambition, your commitment to have and hold these qualities.
I think that explains why we’re seeing more and more people buying jewelry for themselves. It’s not an extravagance. It’s not vanity. Jewelry you choose for yourself is identification. It’s an opening toward connection, in the same way that some get tattoos.
Questions about green diamonds that people often ask
Are green diamonds real diamonds?
Green diamonds are genuine diamonds. Not everyone realizes, until they begin shopping for a diamond — but not all diamonds are white (colorless). Diamonds run the gamut of color from “white” (colorless) to black.
Colors other than white are called Fancy Colors, in diamonds.
So, gemologists officially call green diamonds “Fancy Color Green” diamonds or “Fancy Green” diamonds. Other fancy colors besides green include red, green, purple, orange, pink, blue, yellow, and brown.
And they are just as real as any white diamond. Greens are right in there.
How are green diamonds formed?
Like any other diamond, green diamonds were formed one of two ways:
- Deep in the earth’s crust.
- In a lab.
The process for creating a diamond in a lab mimics the earth’s natural processes. Intensely high pressure and heat do the job.
What makes green diamonds green?
The cause is either using a lab recipe with small amounts of boron and nitrogen added, or else exposure to radiation — whether deep in the earth’s crust (alpha radiation, beta radiation, naturally occurring in the earth’s crust) or in a lab. (In a lab, the radiation is supplied by electron beam “irradiation.” As discussed above, electron beam treatment doesn’t at all make a diamond radioactive.)
Here’s a deep dive …
If you want the deep dive technical information on how radiation and (even more rarely) chemical exposure creates the green in green diamonds, you can read the scientific GIA (Gemological Institute of America) report on it here. https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2018-natural-color-green-diamonds-beautiful-conundrum
It’s fascinating! (Or not. Depends on you.)
How rare is a green diamond?
According to Geology.com, earth created green diamonds are exceedingly rare. https://geology.com/diamond/green-diamonds/ While Geology.com doesn’t offer any stats, we do have some stats from the GIA (Gemological Institute of America).
But first, the GIA points out that all fancy color diamonds are so rare, counted all together, that many people don’t even know they exist.
The stunning rarity statistics:
0.4% of all diamonds submitted to the GIA for grading are fancy color diamonds, of any color. That’s 4 out of 1,000 diamonds. That’s counting all fancy color diamonds, not just green.
What about green diamonds specifically? Well, unfortunately we don’t have statistics on that, since the GIA doesn’t count green diamonds specifically.
What we do have are stats on a subcategory of fancy color including “pure hues of green, blue, or red.”
Want to guess how small this percentage is?
Diamonds of pure green, blue, or red make up 0.07% of all diamonds submitted to the GIA for grading. (Notice, that’s not “seven percent.” It’s seven tenths of one percent. That’s 7 out of 10,000 diamonds!
So 7 out of 10,000 diamonds are pure green, red, or blue.
How many out of those 7 are green, but not red or blue?
We don’t have numbers on that. But we can know that, whatever the actual numbers, it’s probably less than 5 out of 10,000.
So you can know that when you buy an earth-created, untreated fancy color green diamond, you’re getting one of the rarest, most valued gemstones in the world. Much more rare even than a flawless-graded white diamond.
How valuable do you think that makes a green diamond? You’re about to find out. You’ll be shocked — both on the high end of retail green diamonds, and on the more affordable end.
Are green diamonds valuable? How much is a green diamond worth?
It all depends on the diamond. But in general, they’re quite a bit more expensive than other diamonds, for at least two reasons: First, they’re rare. Even lab-created ones are rare. Second, they’re growing in popularity. Low supply with growing demand means anything will be more expensive. It’s not possible to say how much green contributes to a higher price.
It is possible to have a look at dozens and dozens of green diamonds. Have a look. Sort by price. You’ll get an idea quickly:
Leibish & Co.
James Allen
How much is a 1-carat green diamond?
Doing some quick research at James Allen, which has the best prices among reputable dealers that I have found on the Internet, the prices for a 1-Carat green diamond range from $2,820 to $188,740.
At Leibish & Co., it’s more difficult to select for 1-Carat only green diamonds. But at this link, I have selected all green diamonds in their inventory and sorted them by price. You can visually scan through and see that 1-Carat green diamonds start at around $4,900 and go up to around $200,000. (That’s at the time of this writing, so check for yourself as inventory is constantly changing.)
Are green diamonds radioactive?
No, they aren’t, as discussed in detail above. All objects in existence have a very very low level of background radiation. Earth-created green diamonds underwent radiation hundreds of millions of years ago, so their radioactivity has dissipated. Lab-created green diamonds were made green by electron-beam radiation, which doesn’t make an object radioactive.
Are there real green diamonds?
There are many real green diamonds. Some are absolutely naturally-occurring, with no treatment to enhance the green color. These are very rare, but they exist. If you’re considering buying one, you probably have a lot of cash on hand. Even so, you don’t want to waste your cash or be deceived. So if you’re shopping for an earth-created, untreated, “real green diamond,” then make sure to 1) deal only with a source you trust and 2) get all the documentation which proves the source it came from and documents that it has not been treated.
The reason? Most — not all — green diamonds were made green by treatment. They’re perfectly real. They’re identical to naturally occurring green diamonds. But people do value naturally occurring over treated. It’s just the way we are.
What’s the best color intensity for a green diamond
Most people prefer a color intensity in the middle, since there’s enough green to be remarkable, but not so much that it looks like an emerald. Most people want it to be perceived as a diamond, not as an emerald. That depends on your taste completely. For example:
- Some want a deeper green, for a more vivid look.
- Some want an Irish green.
- Others want a sea green, symbolizing the ocean.
- Or a darker river green.
The beautiful thing is, you have many choices, presuming you also have the cash.
The best color shade or intensity of a green diamond is a matter of taste. That’s true with all fancy color diamonds. These are simply my thoughts. They will help as an anchor point. You can consider these issues on your own while browsing green diamonds for sale at
How to lower the price of a green diamond
Affording a green diamond is definitely possible. They’re not all out of reach of even middle class incomes. Some, true, are over $100,000 dollars. Some cost tens of thousands of dollars. But some cost only $2K and up.
Here’s how to find less expensive green diamonds.
- Don’t shop on eBay, or non-reputable sellers. This is a negative piece of advice. I’m telling you what not to do. But it’s necessary in this case. People are tempted to go there, since green diamonds can be so expensive. But it’s too risky. Also, you won’t find any deals or bargains or “70% off” sales that are real involving green diamonds. Anything that looks too good to be true? It definitely is. So don’t be tempted to buy from a retailer who isn’t highly reputable.
- Go for much “lower quality” cuts. Fancy color diamonds, including green diamonds, won’t sparkle in the way that white diamonds do. Consequently, extremely high quality cut is not necessary.
- Go for lower clarity. Clarity isn’t as much as issue with green diamonds. Especially if you’re after a much darker color of green.
- Go for a smaller size.
The most effective tactic for finding an affordable green diamond
It’s to use the price sorting filters at James Allen, Leibish & Co, or any other reputable dealer of fancy color green diamonds that you choose to shop with.
The price filter is your friend.
No need to manipulate all the other filters in order to see which is the least expensive green diamond for you. Just sort by price, lowest to highest, then look at the green diamonds that are within reach for you.
The number of green diamonds selected won’t be overwhelmingly large, as it is with white diamonds. You can easily sort through them, enjoy looking, and then actually buy a green diamond. Maybe it’s something you’ve been dreaming of for a while.
I wish you luck, and much enjoyment in your journey to find the best green diamond you can afford.
They are truly enchanting diamonds. Green is one of the most evocative, naturally emotional colors for human beings, as it is the color of nature. Tree green diamonds. Sea-green diamonds. River-green diamonds. Diamonds the color of green grass. Maybe the only other equally evocative colors of diamonds might be brown/champagne (earth, tree trunks, rocky caves and coves) and blue (blue of ocean, water, sky).
