Understanding the 4C's of Loose Diamonds

Getting started in the diamond appraisal world can be a challenge for anyone, but once you understand the basics of the 4C's you will be able to understand what you are looking for and what to avoid with much more confidence. Now, let's unravel the mystery of loose diamonds.

In 1953, the Gemological Institute of America created a scale to standardize diamond grading. This professional scale has been adopted worldwide and is widely popular amongst reputable retailers and enthusiasts. The qualities of the scale are known as the "4 C's", or clarity, cut, color, and carat weight.

A diamond's clarity can be affected by any number of factors during its formation. Forces, like pressure and heat, can cause a wide variety of internal and external imperfections, known as inclusions and blemishes respectively. Since most of these can be difficult or impossible to detect, trained eyes and specialized equipment, often using strong magnification, are necessary for accurate grading, which uses a scale that ranges from included to flawless.

A loose diamond's cut is the measurement of how well its facets reflect light. This is an important and difficult aspect to measure, but it has a profound impact on the gem's beauty. The quality of the cut comes down to how skilled the hands of the jeweler who shaped it are. This scale ranges from poor to excellent.

Diamonds are graded on their lack of color. Since color can be very subtle in diamonds, it makes a large impact on the gem's overall value. The scale starts at "D", which is colorless, and goes down to "Z", where the diamond is yellow. A special set of master stones are the standard that others are compared against in this step. Diamonds of different colors exist, but they are not represented on the standard scale, instead having specialized scales due to the rarity of such gems.

Carat weight is the simplest of all the 4C's to measure. A metric carat is divided up into 200 milligrams. Each carat is then divided into 100 points, allowing for precise measurement. Simply put, the more carats, generally, the more the diamond is worth.

The next time you need to buy some loose diamonds, take a step back and brush up on the 4C's. If you have a strong understanding of this scale, you will find that you can make a strong and educated decision when buying a diamond. Good luck!

James William is a famous writer specializing in a variety of consumer education topics, including Certified Loose Diamonds .

Understanding the Quality of Emeralds You are Buying

Whenever you are buying jewelries or loose emeralds online, quality should always be the primary thing that you must have in mind. This is because the quality of the item that you will get dictates the price or cost that you need to pay for. Aside from that, this is also your basis in determining its relative value compared to other gems. In this light, there are various ways on how we can judge the quality of emerald jewelries. Two (2) of the most common classifications are the AA versus AAA standards and the natural versus lab-created gemstones, aside from grading certifications.

AA versus AAA Quality Standards

The AA and AAA quality standards are, in fact, just among many ways to grade gems like loose emeralds. Firstly, AA refers to the quality of the gems with negligible inclusions, which are visible to the bare eyes. It also has no white spots and other flaws on the table. Hence, what this means is that the table of the gem is generally high qualiy, but there could be some tiny cavities on its crown. The AAA, in contrary, refers to a higher quality since it is characterized as flawless. Among the laboratories that do the grading is the European Gemological Laboratory (EGL).

Naturally-available Versus Lab-created Gemstones

Another way to describe the quality of loose emeralds online is to determine whether it is naturally-available or a lab-created gemstone. Generally, a naturally-available gemstone is characterized as something raw and exotic. Most of these are also difficult to retrieve or mine. Hence, they tend to be more expensive than the lab-created ones. Some of them could have some flaws, but could be enhanced to a perfect grade. The lab-created gemstones, in contrary, are those that are perfectly polished. Since they can be easily done through laboratories, they are more affordable than the other one.

Other Grading System of Various Laboratories

Moreover, aside from the first two (2) quality systems mentioned above, there are also various organizations that provide grading certificates to gems like those emeralds and even diamonds. When you buy loose emeralds online, you need to make sure that the gem has certification from any relevant organizations. Among the most common certifying bodies include the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), International Gemological Institute (IGI), Diamond High Council, which is the counterpart of GIA in Europe, as well as the Precision Gem Grading Laboratory (PGGL) in the state of Philadelphia and the American Gem Society (AGS).

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Rony Joseph has published 1 article. Article submitted on August 08, 2013. Word count: 413

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