Answers to Your Diamond Questions

What to Look For

If you want to begin judging diamond quality, you must first learn and understand the 4 C’s, which are four characteristics of diamonds that give the gem stone it’s overall value. The 4 C’s for judging diamond quality include the diamonds color, clarity, carats and cut.

Judging Color

Most diamonds are considered to be ideal if they are transparent, or colorless. Diamonds that are rated as colorless are the most expensive of diamonds. The colors of diamonds are rated with an alphabet grading system that starts with “D” and ends with “Z”. Completely colorless diamonds fall in the “D” and “E” grade, while colored, fancy diamonds are at the other end of the alphabet, at “Y” and “Z”.

There are two main ways that jewelers’ use when judging diamond quality based on color. They may pull out a set of reference stones, and find the closest match between the diamond and the reference stone to determine its letter grade. Alternatively, the jeweler may use a colorimeter, which can electronically measure the color of the stone and determine its grade within 1/3 of a grade.

Judging Clarity

The clarity of a diamond refers to whether or not the diamond is clear all the way through, or whether it has tiny flaws and cloudy areas within the gemstone. It’s actually very rare to have a diamond with absolute perfect clarity and no flaws, but most diamond flaws are not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen with a magnifying device.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) uses a magnification of about 10x when judging diamond quality based on the clarity. There are treatments available to make a diamond appear nicer than it actually is, and the treatments should lower the overall price of the diamond so it is important to do your research before purchasing a diamond to be sure you are not spending more money than you should.

Judging Carat Weight

Carat is the term we used to describe the weight of a diamond gemstone. One carat is equivalent to 200 milligrams of weight. A single diamond with a high amount of carat weight is more expensive than the equivalent amount of carats in multiple stones. This is because finding the larger diamonds is much more rare of an occurrence. So if you want a 2-carat diamond ring, for example, you may decide to go with a half-carat diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds that add up to one and a half carats to give you the total of 2 carats! Judging diamond quality by the amount of carats is difficult, since different shaped gemstones, and stones with different levels of clarity will be priced differently even if they have the same amount of carats.

Judging the Cut

One of the most important factors in judging diamond quality is judging the cut of a diamond. It’s important because a quality cut diamond will be more brilliant and reflects light more beautifully, and yet the cut of a diamond has the least impact on the overall price of the diamond.

When judging diamond quality on the cut of a diamond, look at the stone in a well lit area. If the light seems to go into the stone and bounce back, showing a sparkling reflective surface, the diamond has a good cut. The angles and shapes of a diamond are important to judging diamond quality and the overall appearance of your diamond.

The Difference Between Jewelry Lab Certificates and Appraisals

Most people have both jewelry lab certificates and appraisals for their valuable jewelry, but the two documents are not one in the same. They serve different purposes and contain a different set of information that is helpful to jewelry owners, as well as to people who are looking for new jewelry to purchase.

Jewelry lab certificates and appraisals often go hand in hand, but the lab certificate is a document that describes information about an unmounted gem stone, like a diamond that has not been set into any piece of jewelry, while the appraisal provides detailed information on the market value of a piece of jewelry, whether it is unmounted or already set as a ring, earrings, or necklace for example.

Choosing Labs and Appraisals

When selecting jewelry lab certificates and appraisals on jewelry that you are considering to purchase, it is best to select an independent company that provides these documents rather than rely on the documents created by the company that you are planning to buy your jewelry from. Otherwise, you face the potential for the lab or appraiser to be biased, since they will benefit from the sale of jewelry.

If you already have jewelry lab certificates and appraisals on your existing jewelry, but are unsure of their accuracy, it may be worthwhile to have your items appraised again to see what their current market value is.

Jewelry Lab Certificates

Jewelry lab certificates are written reports that detail unmounted gemstones rather than completed pieces of jewelry. The certificates include information about the diamonds (or other gemstone) cut and shape, as well as the stone’s color and clarity grades as decided by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Lab certificates contain specifics about the carat weight as well as the dimensions of the diamond, taking into account the stone’s angles.

Once the lab certificate is drawn up, it should not change unless the stone is physically altered or it is found at a later date that the gem stone was evaluated incorrectly the first time.

Jewelry Appraisals

The entire reason people obtain jewelry lab certificates and appraisals is to document the dollar value of the diamond, whether it is for personal investment purposes, or in order to have a physical record of the gem stone for insurance purposes. It is also great documentation to have if you ever decide to sell your jewelry at a future date, or pass it down to family members.

It is wise to have your existing valuable jewelry appraised in case it is stolen, or in the event you go through a divorce or estate settlement. Before purchasing a new piece of jewelry you can also get it appraised to get a good idea what the market value is on the piece before shelling out large amounts of money to pay for it if it isn’t worth the amount of money they are asking for the piece.