How are diamonds priced?
It’s easy not to care about how diamonds are priced since they’re all inherently expensive anyway, right? Well, that’s not entirely wrong, but given a lot of people have been victims of being sold overpriced items calls for a solution. Being well prepared and knowledgeable about these things can prevent you from falling victim to such a despicable fraud when buying diamond rings.
As they say, knowledge is power.
There are a lot of factors gemmologists consider before determining a diamond’s quality and value. These are the well-known 4Cs of the diamond: colour, clarity, cut and carat. Jewellers around the globe make use of this grading chart to put the appropriate price on diamond pieces.
This universal method of grading was established because all diamonds are unique in nature. There are no existing diamonds that are exactly the same. Each is made at a different time and place—they’re literally nature’s sparkling treasure!
Now, let’s go over each of the 4Cs of diamonds:
Colour
Diamond colour is graded from colourless to yellow or brown. The highest grade a diamond could have in terms of colour is D (colourless) and the lowest is Z (yellow/brown). You may think that a gemmologist can determine a diamond’s colour with just one look—not that simple, mate.
A gemmologist would require a room with controlled lighting and other tools to accurately measure the degree of a diamond’s colour. In fact, to determine if a diamond is graded D, it must have the exact same hue of a droplet of water. Even the slightest hint of discolouration will no longer deem it as a D-graded diamond.
Watch this video prepared by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to further understand it:
Clarity
Clarity, as the name suggests, is the clearness of the diamond. Since diamonds are the product of extreme natural processes, there are bound to be certain imperfections both inside and outside the gemstone. These imperfections are called ‘Inclusions’ and ‘blemishes.’
Diamond clarity is graded from flawless (FL) to included (I1, I2, I3), with flawless being the highest one. Of course, as mentioned before, it’s almost impossible to achieve the flawless rating because of how diamonds are made. Only synthetic diamonds can have an FL grade. But who knows? There might be a flawless diamond waiting to be discovered.
To understand more about clarity, watch this video below:
Cut
This is often falsely associated with a diamond’s shape—which is really not. Cut refers to the diamond’s facet arrangement. Of the four Cs, a diamond’s cut is the most difficult one to assess since there are three subfactors needed to be considered before coming up with the final grading.
These subfactors are:
Brightness – It’s the internal and external white light that’s reflected from a diamond.
Fire – Fire is the way how white light scatters into the colours of the rainbow.
Scintillation – It’s basically the sparkle the gemstone produces.
The diamond’s shape can also affect its value, but the price is somewhat flimsy since it solely depends on a shape’s popularity.
Carat
Carat is basically a diamond’s weight. Most people perceive carat as the sole definer of a diamond’s value. Well, there’s some truth in that, since carat weight can increase the price of any diamond jewellery. For example, a 1-carat diamond custom engagement ring in Sydney is significantly more expensive than a 0.9 carat diamond ring.
But one must also keep in mind that carat is one of the 4Cs of the diamond. Two diamonds of the same carat can differ in value because of the other factors.
Now that you know the factors on how the diamonds are priced, you can confidently ask your local jeweller knowledgeable questions that can prevent you from getting scammed by some pretentious bloke.
