Many jewelers talk about the ’4 Cs’ when describing the quality of a diamond: color, clarity, cut and carat.
- Color: This is one of the first things that many people notice in a diamond. One of the most prized diamond body colors is actually colorless – the so-called ‘white’ diamond. It’s very rare to find a diamond without any natural shade or tint – and it’s pretty much impossible to accurately judge a diamond’s true color when it’s mounted in a ring anyway. But a completely colorless diamond (grade D) will command a high price as dictated by its scarcity. Most diamonds have some sort of natural hue, and are given a letter grade up through the alphabet as the depth of the shade increases.
- Diamonds also occur in a variety of colors, and these appeal to many brides and grooms. Naturally colored diamonds may also fetch a high price. In addition, technology can produce colored diamonds through high pressure or high temperature treatments, and these will typically be less expensive than naturally occurring colors.
- Clarity: Dealers inspect diamonds for flaws inside the stone or on its surface, sometimes under magnification, as another pointer to a stone’s value. A diamond is thus graded for its clarity according to its characteristics and blemishes. Another factor affecting value is the location and visibility of the flaw, and a skilled jeweler may be able to hide imperfections in the setting of the stone in the ring.
- Cut: Diamond cutting is a technique requiring much skill and experience and has less to do with the actual shape of the stone and more the extent to which it brings out the diamonds brilliance and fire. The lively sparkle and colors that can be seen in a diamond depend on the way the cut causes the light to reflect internally on the facets and back out through the top to the eye of the viewer. Two of the most popular cuts found are the traditional brilliant cut, where the top or ‘crown’ of the stone is circular, and the bottom or ‘pavilion’ is conical in shape; and the ‘princess cut’, which is shaped rather like an inverted pyramid.
- Carat: is a measurement of weight, not size (and is quite different from the karat measurement of the purity of gold). Since 1913, there has been general agreement that a whole carat weighs 200 milligrams, or 100 points. Wedding ring stones are often measured in points. Antique wedding rings dating from before that may have been weighed differently, depending on the country in which they were made.
