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How To Buy A Diamond With The Four C’s
Whoever said that a diamond is a girl’s best friend is a genius for creating the world’s most marketing tagline, one that made a celebrity and a necessity out of diamonds. Diamonds are indeed coveted because of their beauty, but anyone can be bedazzled by their heady glitter and not take the time to find out if a stone is up to gemological standards.
So, exactly, what are the things that you consider when buying a diamond? Across the jewelry industry, there are only four C’s you need to consider. These are carat weight, clarity, color and cut.
Carat
The word carat is usually associated with diamond, but it is not the only consideration for the price of a diamond. In fact, when you say a price tag, know that only 5% of it is attributed to carat. Carat refers to a stone’s actual weight, and one carat equals to half a gram. One carat is also equal to 100 points. Diamonds weighing one carat or more are invariably the most expensive because they extremely rare: it’s only one stone in a million.
Color
The color of a diamond accounts for 25% of its price tag. While ordinary buyers may think of diamonds are being only of one color, in fact, there are several color ranges or tints.
The colors of diamonds are either in the white or colorless range (D, E, F), or in the near-colorless range (G, H, I, J). There are also diamonds in the slightly tinted range (J, K, L). The white to colorless diamonds are rare and are the most expensive. The more affordable ones are the slightly tinted diamonds. The tint is attributed to the trace elements trapped inside a diamond stone. Almost all diamonds have some tint – only the rarest diamonds are as clear as distilled water.
Clarity
Around 20% of a diamond's price tag is attributed to its clarity. Precisely because it is a natural element, a diamond stone will always have impurities or inclusions that interfere with its clarity. The less impurities a diamond has, the more valuable it is. Jewelers assign clarity grades to diamonds, which is based on the level of imperfections that is detected by a magnifying device.
Cut
Thus far, cutting is the most important consideration in determining the price of a diamond at 50% of the price tag. Cut is probably thing that man can do to enhance a diamond’s beauty. By cutting it with a sense of proportion, symmetry and polish, a man can make a diamond to sparkle.
The occasional diamond buyer will not be able to assess a diamond’s four C’s through the naked eye alone. In most cases, a professional jeweler is needed. Ideally, you should take a jeweler friend with you when you’re buying a diamond. But that rarely happens, and in most cases, you will have to rely on the expert of opinion of a jewelry store’s in-house diamond expert. If you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth in a diamond purchase, then consider having your diamond certified by independent grading companies.
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