Word: carats
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...diet conscious America, there were 2-lb. fruitcakes selling for 49?, and 4 Ibs. of mixed nuts cost 79?. A man's cotton-broadcloth shirt sold for $1.69, and a wool sweater for $1.95. For women, black leather oxfords cost $1.98, and a one-quarter carat diamond set in 18-karat white gold was priced...
...various and as melodramatic as the land. Villet brings them all onstage: the Falstaffian "Oom Paul" Kruger, grandfather to 120, opponent of natives on one hand and Victorian imperialists on the other; Schalk van Niekerk, owner of a "blinklippie," a stone that turns out to be the 83-carat Star of Africa diamond; the Struben brothers, who strike one of the world's richest gold fields on their farm; plus an indelible supporting cast of victims and survivors. The Afrikaners, caroming between wealth and catastrophe, assaulted by tribal warriors, defeated by the British in the Boer War, grow diamond...
...growing De Beers stockpile of gems. The reason is that there is a worldwide glut of the precious gems. The vaults of diamond wholesalers are overflowing with rough as well as cut and polished stones, and the market for investment-grade diamonds has virtually collapsed. A rare one-carat D-flawless-grade stone that brought $62,000 at the peak of the market in 1980 is now worth only $15,000 or less, a decline of more than 75%. De Beers' sales arm, the Central Selling Organization, saw profits tumble 46% in 1981, and Oppenheimer says that an upturn...
...this year, De Beers will spend $26 million on advertising, up 75% from 1980. The budget for television commercials alone has quadrupled, to $10 million. To spur sales of larger, more profitable stones, a new slogan has been created: "A diamond of a carat or more is only one in a million." For less affluent buyers, De Beers is urging American parents to give their teen-age daughters small, heart-shaped diamond jewelry "for those special occasions ... as only a parent...
...case of a beautiful new gem called Royal Lavulite, under the earth. The deep translucent purple stone, known to mineralogists as sugilite, was officially classified as a rare gem in October 1980, and prices for the stone quickly climbed to as much as $1,000 a carat, compared with $3,000 to $5,000 a carat for the finest grade commercial diamonds...