Carat and Colour

Carat refers to the weight of a diamond. There are five carats in one gram. A clear, colourless, perfectly cut diamond weighing 5 carats would be worth a staggering £420,000 at a conservative estimate, the price of a large family house! However, the same one gram weight consisting of five perfect one carat diamonds would cost a mere £40,000, or £8,000 each, so you could have fifty-two perfect one carat diamonds for the price of one 5 carat diamond. What is the better investment? The answer is of course the 5 carat diamond, because its value will increase at a faster rate than the 55 one carat stones, because it is much rarer, and it's easier to sell one diamond to a rich man than it is to sell 55 diamonds to 55 "poor" men.

To come back down to earth, this carat weight business is very important (as are the other 3 C's, of which more later). I often receive enquiries from people who want me to find them a nice one carat diamond. They have read somewhere that a nice G/VS2 diamond should cost around £2,000 per carat, so could I find them a one carat diamond for £2,000? The problem is that the £2,000 per carat was referring to a half carat diamond, which would indeed cost around £1,000. However, a one carat diamond would cost nearer £5,000, or five times as much.

Colour, or rather lack of colour, is the second C. Most diamonds have a slight yellowish or brownish tint, which is usually barely noticeable to the untrained eye. The less colour a diamond has, the more valuable it is (when taken in conjunction with the other 3 C's, I hasten to add!). Colour is represented by the letters of the alphabet. This is best illustrated with a table:

Letter	Colour Grading
D, E, F	colourless
G, H, I, J	near colourless
K, L, M	very slightly tinted yellow
N, O, P Q, R	faint yellow
S -Z	light yellow

If an M colour diamond is placed face down next to a D colour stone, the first diamond will look tinted, even to the naked eye. However, the M colour diamond, face up and on its own, will look almost colourless, especially if it's a smaller stone, say up to 5mm or half a carat. Since the price of a half carat  M/SI1 diamond would be about £400, as against £1,000 for a D/SI1, low colour stones represent excellent value for money, especially if the buyer prefers yellow gold for the setting.

For further information visit the following web page and click "Education and Guidance" in the right hand column: Search for Diamonds at Blue Nile

Clarity and Cut

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

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