Diamonds And Precious Gems

I found this great resource on the Gemological Institute of America's website. It has a slider which allows you to check the size of a diamond and you can even compare it to second stone to compare the difference. This slider only shows the size of round cut diamonds, but these are the most popular cut, here it is: http://gia4cs.gia.edu/EN-US/diamond-carat-weight.htm Princess cut diamonds and other fancy cuts are nice for variety, but the round cut diamond has been engineered in such a way to get the best light performance. Occasionally you may get similar shininess from other cuts if they are signature diamond cuts. But back to diamond sizes: A 1 carat round cut diamond, when cut well, will be about 6.5 mm across.   It's difficult to see this if the diamond is in a setting particularly if it is in a setting which has a lip around the entire diamond (a bezel setting). The prong settings are popular as they display more of the diamond and this allows the light to...

The Price Of Diamonds Diamond price increases almost exponentially with diamond carat weight. Ok, not really exponentially, but there are huge differences between a 1 carat and a 2 carat diamond. This can be quite shocking to a first time diamond shopper. Larger diamonds are simply rare and it follows that they are therefore more highly prized. Of course sometimes two diamonds of equal carat weight can be sold at completely different prices. This is because the value will be based not only on size but on three other factors: Clarity, Color, and Cut. Together with the weight in Carats these make up the four defining  characteristics of diamonds, referred to throughout the diamond trade as the 4 C's. Magic Sizes Some weights are referred to as "magic sizes" : half carat, three-quarter carat, and carat.  There's little difference visually between a 0.99 carat diamond and one that weighs a full carat. Even a 0.92 ct diamond can look pretty m...