To assess quality and relative value, diamonds are graded under four criteria: Cut, Color, Carat and Clarity, known as the “4Cs”. These are independent yet inextricably linked.

Cut

Cut refers to the proportions and angles that a skilled craftsman creates when cutting a rough diamond into a polished diamond. The brilliance, fire, and scintillation that make diamonds breathtaking would largely depend on the precision with which a diamond is cut to perfect proportions.

Colour

Color is a very important characteristic of a diamond. Generally, the more colorless the diamond, the greater is the rarity and value. To the untrained eye, most diamonds appear colorless, but in reality they have very subtle shades of color, often traces of yellow, brown or gray. When diamonds are formed under extreme temperatures and pressure, the carbon crystallizes with other elements. It is traces of these elements that affect the color of a diamond. Intense colors of yellow, pink, blue, green and red can also occur in diamonds, which are very rare and expensive in value.

Clarity

Clarity refers to the presence, quantity, size, position, nature, and color of internal features or foreign bodies called inclusions. Clarity also refers to external imperfections such as scratches, called blemishes. Both blemishes and inclusions lower the clarity grade of a diamond and have an adverse effect on its value. The more inclusions there exist, the less effective a diamond is in reflective light.

Carat

Carat is the standard unit of measurement for diamond. The probable origin of this measure dates back to antiquity where the seed of a carob tree was used as a unit of measure in gem trading. The word carat comes from “kuara”, which stands for the seed of the African carob tree. The reason for usinjg this seed as a unit of measurement was its remarkable consistency of weight. The metric weight of a carat equals 0.2 grams. A carat may be divided into 100 “points” – so a 0.75 ct diamond is called a 75-point diamond. It seems obvious that the heavier a diamond, the more valuable it would be. However, as cut, clarity, and color also help to determine value, it is possible that a smaller stone could be more valuable than a larger diamond with inferior characteristics.