Diamonds are inherently worthless, believe it or not. Before the late 1800s they were extremely rare, which made them valuable.
Cecil Rhodes found plentiful diamond mines in South Africa and flooded the market in the early 1900s. Later, he created a diamond cartel to control supply and maintain high prices.
Diamond supplies thus are strategically limited to control prices. The price of a diamond would crater if its true supply were available.
If you want to buy a truly valuable gemstone look for gemstones that are are hard to find and actually valuable. Here are seven of them.
