Diamond Carat - What is Diamond Carat Weight?

Diamond Carat - What is Diamond Carat Weight?

When shopping for a diamond, you've no doubt heard references to the 4 C's of diamonds. Diamond carat is one of those popular ”c's” to consider when evaluating a diamond, and it's a term used to describe how much the diamond weighs. A single diamond carat is equal to the weight of 200 milligrams, or .2 grams.

Diamonds are described two different ways in regards to the diamond carat. An abbreviation of “ct” is used to describe the weight of a single diamond stone while an abbreviation of “ct TW” is used when describing the total weight of an entire piece of jewelry- when it has more than one stone in place.

It's important to recognize that two stones may have the exact same carats, meaning they have the same weight measurement, and yet they are completely different in size and appearance. This is due to the actual density of the gemstone. The more dense a stone is, the more weight they have, and sometimes a smaller stone will actually weigh more than a larger stone because of density.

When selecting your diamond ring, you can choose between a single, solitaire style setting (a single diamond on the ring) and a setting that has multiple, smaller stones to make up the ring. The value of a solitaire one diamond carat will actually be more than if you buy a ring that has two diamonds that add up to one carat or greater. Larger sized diamonds are more rarely found when mining diamonds, making them more valuable and expensive than purchasing the same amount of diamond carats in smaller stones.

So how do you determine what size diamond to buy? Do you want a diamond carat of 1, or 2, or do you want a ring with multiple, smaller stones? The answer to this will depend greatly on your budget, as well as the person who will be wearing the ring.

A diamond will look larger on a slender finger, so keep that in mind if the recipient of the ring has thin hands. The actual diamond carat measurement is probably not as much of a concern as the appearance, shape, and setting of the ring. Particularly because a 1 carat diamond ring will not look half the size of a 2 diamond carat ring, it's far more important to select a ring that is pleasing to look at than it is to buy one with the most carats you can afford.

Determine how much money you have to spend, and then decide on the cut of the diamond. Once you have these two pieces of information narrowed down, you can start browsing the diamonds in your price range, in the style you want, and find out what diamond carat you are in the market to buy.

Treated Diamonds - Why Treated Diamonds Exist

Treated Diamonds - Why Treated Diamonds Exist

For centuries, people have always tried to improve objects that are a result of nature. We've cross bred plants and even animals to produce new species, and we prune and shape trees and bushes to make them more pleasing to the eye or to create fancy borders around our yards and in front of our homes. When it comes to diamonds, many become treated diamonds by the jeweler, in order to improve their appearance.

Treated diamonds can have improved clarity, improved color and even be completely coated to improve it's overall appearance. On the positive side, treated diamonds can help people with limited budgets have the ability to purchase a gorgeous looking diamond.

Clarity Improved Diamonds

In order to improve the clarity of diamonds, sometimes tiny cracks in the diamond are filled with molten glass. This can cause the diamond to move up a grade in the GIA grading system, and it does not affect the overall weight of the diamond. The process was invented by Israeli diamond cutter, Zvi Yehuda in 1982. Since this invention, some companies have begun a new process that fills the cracks with bromine instead of the molten glass, however, bromine will sometimes discolor the diamond under certain lighting conditions. It's always best to ask what method the diamond has been treated with when considering treated diamonds, so that you are not surprised when you view the diamond in light outside the jeweler's.

Colored Diamonds

There are a few different types of color treated diamonds. Colored diamonds are actually painted in order to take away a yellowish tinge, and make the diamonds appear more white and transparent. Some are colored darker, in order to permanently alter a diamond to a different color by using electron bombardment. Others become treated diamonds by way of laser drills. In the 1970's people began using lasers to drill miniscule holes into the diamonds to reach dark colored spots. Once they reach the dark colored areas within the diamonds, they are able to bleach them with acid so that they are not as noticeable. Sometimes they finish the laser treated diamonds by then filling the tiny holes with molten glass.

Coated Diamonds

Coated treated diamonds are much like a colored diamond, except for the entire diamond gets a coating of a substance that is designed to make the diamond appear brighter and more translucent to the naked eye. In fact, the coating is so good on most treated diamonds that it can go undetected unless an experienced gemologist studies the diamond for it's value.

Treated diamonds are often very beautiful, and can be more affordable than diamonds that are not treated. If you decide to purchase a treated diamond, just be sure you inform the jeweler when you bring your diamond in for cleaning, as they may need to use different chemicals to clean it and maintain it's treatment.

The Best Diamond Pricing Process

If you have been shopping for diamond jewelry, you have probably noticed that jewelry such as engagement rings, eternity rings, diamond necklaces and earrings are on the market for a wide range of prices. In fact, the difference from one diamond ring to the next can easily be several thousand dollars. For most consumers, price is an important factor in a buying decision, so it is important to understand what you are paying for when you purchase a brilliant piece of diamond jewelry.

Pricing most products is quite easy. Determine how much it costs to make the item, how much it costs to market that item, and then mark it up by 15 – 30% or more. Simple, right? Well, pricing diamonds isn’t quite that simple. There are many factors that are considered when diamonds are priced.

Diamond prices are determined first by adding the cost of the rough diamond, the cost of cutting the diamond, and all other costs necessary to turn the rough diamond into a marketable diamond. Depending on the importance of the diamond, an independent company may be called in to certify the grade of the diamond based on color, cut, clarity, and weight.

At this point, the diamond becomes more expensive each time it changes hands, untilit finally reaches a retailer, where the price is raised a bit more. Before reaching the retailer, however, the diamond must travel from the mine, to the cutter and polisher, to the independent grading company, and then to the Primary market. Once it has reached the primary market, it will be purchased by diamond dealers and wholesalers, and from there it will be sold to retailers.

As you can see, the earlier you can purchase a diamond in the process, the lower the cost of the diamond will be – but not the value. The value is based on what the diamond will sell for in the market place – through a retailer.

If you own a diamond, and you have no idea how much it is worth, you can have it appraised, but the appraisal may not be accurate. You will be better off obtaining a certificate through GIA – Gemological Institute of America. With the information on this certificate, you can use a cutter’s guide to accurately determine what yourdiamond is worth.

There are also many diamond price calculators available. These can be found on the Internet, and many diamond dealers use these as well. You must realize, however, that before you can accurately price a diamond, without a Diamond Grade Report, you need to know quite a bit about diamonds, such as different cuts, clarity, color, and weight – and how each of those aspects adds to the value of a diamond, or decreases the value of the diamond as the case may be.

Again, you will be better off if you get a Diamond Grading Report on the diamond, and use that information to look up the price in one of the guides that the diamond cutting industry uses. This will give you the most accurate value of the diamond in your possession, or of the diamond you are considering purchasing.

Where diamonds are mined and how they are mined

Diamond has remarkable optical characteristics. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron and nitrogen. Combined with wide transparency, this results in the clear, colorless appearance of most natural diamonds.

where diamonds are mined and how they are mined?

Probably a little more detail about diamonds than you were expecting but I’m sure it’ll impress everyone else about how much you know about diamonds, yeah? I’m sure if you throw a few of these diamond mine names around, you’ll get the attention of the sales assistants at the jewelry shops, too.

Argye mine located in the Kimberley region in the far north east of Western Australia. Owned by Rio Tinto, this mine is the world’s largest single producer of volume of diamonds.  However, due to low proportion of gem quality diamonds it is not the value leader.  It does produce 90-95% of the world’s supply of pink diamonds. 

Diavik is also owned by Rio Tinto, located in Canada it is a very large mine.   It is located north of Yellowknife and south of the Artic Circle on an island.  The island is connected by an ice road.  It is also an important part of the regions economy employing more than 700 people and producing more than 8 million carats annually.

Ekati diamond mine is owned by BHP Billiton and located south of the artic circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada.  The Ekati is Canada’s first operational diamond mine. Diamonds mined here are sold under the Aurias trade name  Authenticity is verified through Canada Mark service.  CanadaMark service is also owned by BHP Billiton Diamonds, Inc.

Baken diamond mine is located along the lower Orange River in South Africa.  It is owned and operated by Trans Hex.  The average size stone for 2004 was 1.29 carats.   In 2004, this mine produced a 78.9 carat D color flawless diamond that sold for more than 1.8 million dollars (US), as well as a 27.67 pink diamond that was sold for over 1 million US dollars.

Merlin is the second of only two diamond mines in Australia.  No longer operating it was owned by Rio Tinto and sold to Striker Resources, who has explored the possibilities of reopening the mine. 

Orapa is the world’s largest diamond mine.  It us located 240 Km west of Francistown.  The mine is owned by “Debswana” which is a partnership between DeBeers and the government of Botswana. This mine operates 7 days a week.  It maintains pre primary and primary schools for its employee’s children.  There is also a 100 bed hospital and game park.  This mine began production in 1971 and is the oldest mine owned by the Debswana Company.

The Premier mine located in Cullinan, South Africa produced the largest gem diamond ever in 1905.  The Cullinan Diamond weighed 3,106.75 carats.  This mine also produced the Golden Jubilee diamond which weighed 545.67 carats. This mine is owned by the De Beers Company and was renamed The Cullinan Diamond Mine in 2003 in celebration of its centennial.

Spanish Inquisition Necklace

One doesn’t normally associate beautiful jewelry with the time of the Spanish Inquisition. But in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of gems, there is an exquisite necklace of diamonds and emeralds.

It is a spectacular double row of diamonds and emeralds ending in a chandelier of emeralds. There is unfortunately very little information about the provenance of this necklace. The large diamonds and Columbian emeralds were most likely cut in India in the 17th century. This would make them one of the earliest examples of cut gemstones in the Smithsonian’s Collection. There are really only legends surrounding this necklace. They indicate that it was worn at times by Spanish and French royalty. In the early 20th century, it was purchased by the Maharajah of Indore, whose son sold the necklace in 1947 to Harry Winston. Winston subsequently sold the necklace to Mrs. Cora Hubbard Williams of Pittsburgh. She bequeathed it to the Smithsonian in 1972.

Emeralds are a form of crystal known as beryls. Beryls are normally clear crystals, but when infused with chromium or vanadium, they attain various gradations of green. The purest green are the rarest emeralds and many people actually prefer an emerald that has a blue-green tint.

Before the 16th century, the only known emerald deposits were in Cleopatra’s Egyptian mines. But after emeralds were discovered in Columbia, those became the “gold standard” in emeralds. Columbian emeralds have been discovered by archaeologists among artifacts of such tribes as the Inca, Maya, Aztec, Toltec and the lesser-known Chibcha Indians. Emeralds are among the rarest of gemstones and can be more expensive per carat than even the finest diamonds! They are a hard mineral, with a Moh’s hardness scale of 7 or 8 (compared to a diamond’s 10). While most emeralds are found in Africa, Russia and Africa, there have been discoveries of emerald deposits in North Carolina!

Characteristics of the Spanish Inquisition Necklace
The lower-half of the necklace which is double-stranded consists of two concentric semi-circles, made up of smaller diamonds interspersed with pairs of large barrel-shaped diamonds and emeralds, placed symmetrically on the strands. There are eight pairs of larger diamonds and four pairs larger emeralds on these strands. A chandelier-shaped pendant made up of five large emeralds is placed centrally on the double strand, with the largest emerald in the necklace centrally placed on the lower strand.

The upper-half of the necklace is single-stranded made up of smaller diamonds only. At the two points on the necklace where the upper-half and lower-half meet, two large emeralds have been placed. Altogether, there are 15 large emeralds, 16 large diamonds, and around 120 smaller diamonds in the necklace.

The largest emerald in the necklace is an old Indian-cut, 45-carat, barrel-shaped emerald placed centrally in the necklace. According to the Smithsonian, "The rich velveteen color and exceptional clarity place the large emerald among the world's very finest quality emeralds. The shape closely approximates the form of the original elongated hexagonal crystal, suggesting that the crystal faces were simply rounded off to yield the largest possible gem."

Blue Heart Diamond

Photo by Chip Clark

There is a spectacular diamond in the Smithsonian Collection called the Blue Heart Diamond. Fans of the movie Titanic might think the “Heart of the Ocean Diamond” was based on this stone, and it may have been! However, this diamond hasn’t been cast in the ocean, but is safe and sound at the Smithsonian!

It has also been called the Eugenie Blue Diamond, although it’s uncertain that the Empress Eugenie ever owned this particular stone. It was cut in Paris between 1909 and 1910, but the stone’s origin – Africa or India – is unclear.

It is an enormous heart-shaped, blue diamond weighing 30.82 carats. Its current setting is in a platinum ring, surrounded by white diamonds. It changed hands among famous jewelers – such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels - and owners until it was bought by Harry Winston in 1959 who mounted the diamond in its current ring setting. Winston sold the ring to Marjorie Merriweather Post. Mrs. Post donated the ring to the Smithsonian and it remains there with other famous blue diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and the Heart of Eternity Diamond.

These famous blue diamonds have recently gone through a grading and examination process, to classify their colors and to determine the source of the color. The Hope Diamond is classified as Fancy Deep Grayish-Blue. The Heart of Eternity has been classified as a Fancy Vivid Blue. The Blue Heart Diamond has not yet been classified, but some experts categorize it as either Fancy Vivid Blue or Fancy Deep Blue. Blue diamonds are of particular interest to scientists not only because of the color and the impurities that create it, but because blue diamonds also have an electric conductive property that makes them unique among clear and other colored diamonds.

Napoleon Diamond Necklace

One of the most spectacular all-diamond pieces of jewelry in the Smithsonian Insitution is the Napoleon necklace. Thought to have originally been owned by Catherine the Great of Russia, it was presented by the Emperor Napoleon of France to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria on the birth of their son in 1811. The silver and gold set necklace contains172 diamonds weighing 275 carats - 28 oval and cushion-cut diamonds, dangling 19 briolette-cut oval and pear shaped diamonds and accented by small, round diamonds and diamond set motifs in a silver and gold setting. The diamonds are cut in "old mine" style, the precursor to the modern brilliant cut, and have a high degree of fire (flashes of color as the stone moves in light), but less brilliance due to less light refraction through the top of the stone.

The necklace has an estimated total gem weight of 275 carats, and the largest single diamond on it weighs approximately 10 carats. When Marie-Louise died in 1847, the necklace was given to her sister-in-law, Archduchess Sophie of Austria, who removed two stones to shorten the necklace. Earrings were made with the two removed stones, the whereabouts of which are unknown.

In 1872, the necklace was bequeathed to the Archduchess' son, Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria. In 1948, Archduke Ludwig's grandson, Prince Franz Joseph of Liechtenstein, sold the necklace to a French collector who then sold it to Harry Winston in 1960. Marjorie Merriweather Post obtained the necklace from Winston and donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1962.

It’s difficult to value a piece like this in today’s market. However, in 1993, the auction house Christie’s in Geneva sold another necklace that Napoleon had given to Marie-Louise that was composed of rubies and diamonds. This necklace sold for $13 million.