Tips on Judging a Diamond’s Quality

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Well, they’re also a jewelers best friend, because these little stones are the most valuable minerals in the world. Valuable, yet everyone has trouble when buying a diamond because it’s so hard to get a good estimate of what a fair price would be. If that’s you, then I’m here to tell you that judging the value of a diamond is actually as easy as looking for 4 easy characteristics.

What are they? They’re called the 4 C’s, and they are Cut (the shape of the diamond), Clarity (the lack of spots, cracks and flaws in a diamond), Color (less color means
more value) and Carat, which of course is the weight of the diamond.

Judging a Diamond’s Cut is probably easiest; all you look for is whether the diamond is not odd shaped. When your diamond is perfectly round, and about as wide as it is tall, than that’s called a perfect cut. Any damage, odd shapes like oval diamonds or “stretched”, long diamonds will hurt the value of the diamond. That’s not to say it’s not as beautiful, just less valuable.

The second way to easily judge value is clarity. Now this isn’t always easy to see with the naked eye, but if you look at a diamond and see no spots when you hold it into light, it’s close enough to flawless to be valuable. In contrast, diamonds that almost look polluted due to all the small flaws and spots inside the diamond quickly depreciate in value.

The third is color, and in diamonds, color is a bad thing. The more colorless a diamond is, the more valuable it becomes. However, if you have a natural black diamond, you can expect a price almost as high. This is because certain colors are very rare, and they quickly add to the price if you’re after one.

And the last, most sought after characteristic, is of course carat. The higher the carat value, the higher the price will be. Most diamonds will be around 0,1 and 0,5 carat. 95% of women will never own a diamond over 1 carat.

So when you go shopping for diamonds, or whenever you want to sell one off, remember that you should pay close attention to the “4 C’s” of cut, clarity, color and carat.

All that’s left to judge is whether it’s real or not. If a deal looks too good to be true, it usually is. When you see the words CZ, Labcreated or simulated in the shop, then you should know that even the best labcreated diamonds are hardly worth anything compared to the real thing.

Especially if you’re buying a wedding ring or engagement ring, it’s best to steer clear of simulated diamonds and go with a natural. Even if you can’t tell, she’ll eventually find out. Besides, the value of these kinds of diamonds quickly decreases, and you don’t have to be an expert in diamonds to spot a fraud. Getting a good deal on a natural diamond isn’t hard; you only have to know enough to call bluff when a trader is overpriced.

Happy diamond hunting!