Lab photo from the GIA Website photo credit: Robert Weldon |
To eliminate the guesswork from grading a diamond’s color, graders compare it to masterstones that represent known colors in the GIA D-to-Z scale. – © GIA & Tino Hammid |
Until 1953 when the Gemological Institute of America introduced their 4c’s standards, there was no agreed-upon standard by which diamonds could be judged. Colorless diamonds are scarce—most diamonds have tints of yellow or brown. So a colorless diamond could show up on the market as a AAA Diamond…but then again so could a faint yellow. It was the Wild West with the consumer usually coming out on the short end.
GIA proposed the first, and now globally accepted standard for describing diamonds: a D-to-Z color scale and Flawless-to-I3 clarity scale for diamonds. This has become internationally recognized as the standard for evaluating diamond quality,looking at the 4C’s – Color, Clarity, Cut, and Carat Weight.
Fancy-shape diamonds, along with the classic round diamonds, are popular choices for today’s jewelry consumer. Courtesy Lazare Kaplan Diamonds |
Large diamonds are more rare than small diamonds. The more scarce something is, the more it is worth. So a larger stone doesn’t just cost more. It also costs more per carat. A 1-carat diamond weighs the same as four 0.25-carat diamonds. But even if all the other quality factors are equal, the larger diamond is worth much more than the sum of the four smaller diamonds.
Robyn Hawk
Latest posts by Robyn Hawk (see all)
- BrilliAnt®, the 8th edition of the ADTF, Goes International - August 13, 2016
- AGTA Spectrum Awards™ "Platinum Honors" Winnners #AGTA15 - August 11, 2016
- YES! an #Olympic #Jewelry Story! It Happened In The Pool #JewelryMoment - August 9, 2016