Diamonds are know for their toughness and are not stones that break,
chip away or crack easily. They can of course be broken by a single
blow. About 90 percent of the world’s diamonds today come from the
diamond mines of Africa, while rest of the diamond contribution comes
from the mines of Australia, Canada, Russian and South America.
Before you go out to buy diamond jewelry, you need to be aware of the
four C’s of diamond jewelry evaluation. The four C’s stand for the
diamond’s cut, color, clarity and carat weight.
A diamond’s cut informs about the level of light reflected by the
diamond, it’ dimension as well as its finish.
When looking for a diamond, check to see that it is colorless, as a
diamond with colors is not considered of high value. Furthermore,
colors can diminish a diamond’s brilliance. Diamonds are graded in a
color scale based on alphabets D-Z. ‘D’ stands for colorless diamonds
which are also very rare. ‘E’ also denotes colorless diamonds, but
with a slight trace of color that is only visible to the expert eye of
a gemologist. The grade ‘F’ follows E in the scale except, the trace
of color is a little more than what’s found in ‘E’ grade diamonds.
Diamonds graded ‘G’ or ‘H’ are near colorless and are of good value.
Similarly the grade ‘I’ and ‘J also indicates near colorless diamonds.
The grades K-Z are for loose diamonds that have a slight or light
yellow color. It’ best to buy diamonds that fall in the G-I grade
because they are of the best value, but finding one in the D-H grades
is most optimal.
Most coveted diamonds are the ones with hardly any flaws or
inclusions. A diamond’s clarity reveals the number, type, size and
location of such inclusions in the diamond.
Carat is the weight measurement for diamonds with large diamonds
having
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