History

VERENIGING BEURS VOOR DEN DIAMANTHANDEL

ANNO 1890

AMSTERDAM, September 17th.,1890
on this day the VEREENIGING BEURS VOOR DEN DIAMANTHANDEL (Association Exchange for the Diamond Trade), was officially registered. This fact was the ouverture to the opening of the first Diamond Bourse in the world, later becoming the foundation for the international network of diamond bourses united in the WFDB, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses.

Our association is a vivid organisation, still going strong after 120 years of existence, protecting the interests of the diamond-trade in the Netherlands and safeguarding the strict rules created by the WFDB in co-operation with other organisations to regulate the diamond trade. The association guards the interests of both trade and con-sumer, as buying diamonds is a matter of utter trust in the skills of the diamond-dealer, lending his ability to the jeweller, the last professional in the chain of the diamond trade, who, ultimately, assures the consumer that the diamond he is about to buy is up to the standards he expects...!

120 years have seen prosperous times as well as suffering and turbulence especially during the Second World War, which left Amsterdam with deep scars, forcing the city to yield its, pre-viously unquestioned, title of Diamond Center of the World to Antwerp. Nevertheless, the Amsterdam Diamond Exchange has developed into the breeding-ground of organized diamond trading in the world...! Aside from this the first Union, that of Diamond-workers, the NDB, was erected in Amsterdam, later to develop into a more general workers-union, the FNV.

Building of the old Diamond Exchange

Board-room of the old diamondbourse

Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, still plays an important role in the history of the diamondtrade and speaks to the imagination of all that are interested in diamonds, worldwide. Still linked to the city are important diamond-firms as Asscher, Gassan, Coster and van Moppes.

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