Science is a Girl's Best Friend

It's that time of year again! Children laughing and playing, the sound of happy couples, and probably most noticeable it's proposal season. Thinking about proposing, but you don't have a ring? Read this first. Since the pandemic started the price of gold has jumped up. This may not be something you've noticed unless you've gone jewelry shopping recently. In addition to gold, silver, and platinum have steadily jumped up as well. You may be thinking "well I might be ok if the price of stones hasn't moved." But you would be wrong there too. Although, right now due to some of the more concerning issues with diamond procurement (of course in addition to price), there has been a shift to gemstone engagement and wedding rings. 

Before we get into this, let's get into the history of the wedding and engagement ring. Where does the wedding ring tradition come from? Well, there are a variety of reasons someone would have one historically. For example, during the 16th and 17th centuries, European husbands gave their wives gimmel rings. It's essentially a puzzle ring with two interlocking bands. The bride and groom wear each band separately until marriage, at which point the bands are combined and the now wife wears the combined ring. Following that, during the Renaissance era, a sterling silver band was worn with a poem inscribed.

And then along came De Beers in 1947 with his slogan "A Diamond is Forever," popularizing diamonds as the stone of choice for engagement rings. Of course, with the opening of the De Beers mines in Africa, diamonds were made more accessible. De Beers knew what they were doing and with their ad campaign and the sales of diamonds had increased by 50 percent in 3 years. The campaign worked so well, that here we are more than 50 years later still buying into that trend. Well, sort of. Thanks to some of the human rights movements the way that diamonds are obtained has more visibility. You may have heard about blood diamonds, or diamonds mined by potentially questionable means, mined in a war zone, and sold to fund insurgency, war, or a warlord's activity. The United States does have some rules in place to prevent blood diamonds from being traded within its borders, but it isn't possible to monitor and prevent 100% of criminal sales. That being said, celebrities are generally conscious of using blood diamonds in ads or movies and when blood diamonds do appear, they are identified and the user is criticized.

Now that we have some history and context, it is no wonder that current trends in wedding and engagement rings involve gemstones over diamonds. In addition, there are some new options that are 100% guilt free because they are lab generated. The nice thing about lab grown stones is that they do not cost an arm and a leg, and they are sold between 5 and 10 times less than naturally occurring stones. Isn't science neat?

May you and yours have a Happy Holiday! From your Arbitrage trade team.