Diamond Shards/Nuggets

I think you should be able to break a diamond into 9 diamond shards and then re-combine them into a diamond in the same way you can turn a gold ingot into nuggets and back. This would serve two similar purposes -

1 - Diamond “cents” - Diamonds are the most popular form of currency in Minecraft, as they’re rare enough to be special but still common enough to find a decent amount of them, can’t be farmed, and don’t have many other uses nowadays (villagers sell tools and armor and stuff). However, the diamond’s biggest flaw is how you can’t break it into smaller denominations. The best example I can think of is buying a diamond shovel - it only makes sense to charge 1 diamond for a shovel in a shop, but even then, the buyer doesn’t gain much as opposed to just making a shovel themselves. With diamond shards, the shovel’s price could be set at something lower, like 5 shards, which makes a lot more sense.

2 - Putting diamonds in chests without showering the player in wealth - Sometimes, it might make sense to have diamonds spawn in loot chests in certain areas, but giving the player a whole diamond would be way too much. Again, diamond shards would come in handy, as they can still add up to a diamond if you find more of them.

Before you say it, being able to shatter a diamond into pieces and then put it back together again doesn’t make a lot of sense, but the same thing happens with diamond and emerald blocks.