Since you guys seem to know everything, I figure I'll try asking this.

Uncut diamonds. Very good quality. How many pounds and how big a pile would make up fifty million dollars?

What if I have the diamonds cut first - perfectly cut since the job would be done by Superman. How many pounds and how big a pile would make up fifty million dollars?

[I don't need exact amounts - but I don't want to make a fool of myself with the weight or the amount of space it would take up. So any ideas would be appreciated]

I think a lot of variables go in here. You say good quality but there are many factors. Color, clarity, flaws. I also think it has more value after it is cut but not sure. Also the size of the stone makes a difference in the price. If you are talking about a rare color, with few flaws that is large (ie the Hope Diamond) I think you would only need 1 or 2 stones and they wouldn't way pounds.

Okay I did some research on the web on diamonds. I could only find "good" not outstanding. A good grade "D" which is the best color - true color/clear at 3.01 carats was $57,690.86. So basing it on this diamond which is good not outstanding and the price does go up for the size of the diamond. I came up with your needing 2508.36 carats worth of diamonds. Now a carat is 1/5 of a gram and a gram is .035 ounces. So for $50 million in cut good quality not outstanding you would need a little over a pound. So for outstanding diamonds it would be less. Now if it was for one of the colored diamonds I couldn't find prices on that so don't know. Hope this helps.

PS some of what determines a diamonds worth is carat, clarity, color, cut.

That helps a lot, kmar. A pound of diamonds works for me. I assume that is properly cut diamonds since a diamond has to be cut right to make it valuable. I wonder how big a package that would make.

Diamond has a density of around 3.5 grams per cubic centimetre, so your 500-odd grams of diamond would occupy about 140 cc (millilitres). Obviously there'd be some air in the package, too, but I think you can assume no more than 200 ml in total, or 6 to 7 fluid ounces. Under a cupful, definitely.

Mere

Thanks, Mere. Who would have thought a cup of diamonds would be so valuable? (now if only I could think of a way to get a cup full of diamonds, I'd be set for life )