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If you're looking for an engagement ring, knowledge of the 4Cs will be extremely helpful in selecting the right diamond for your center stone. So, what are the 4Cs?
The 4Cs of diamond grading are Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight. Together, these categories represent a universally accepted method of describing diamonds.
A Brief History
Before 1953, when this system was officially established by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America), a diamond might have been described as "A, B, or C," "AAA, AA, or A," or even "I, II, III, or IV" quality. The inconsistency of these designations made it difficult to know what you were truly getting when purchasing a diamond. Today, with the 4Cs, jewelers, diamond dealers, and jewelry buyers worldwide speak the same diamond quality language.
Consider this your crash course on the language of diamonds. Let's begin with the simplest of the 4Cs: Carat Weight.
The weight of diamonds and other gemstones is measured in carats (ct), using highly sensitive scales that determine the weight of a gemstone down to the thousandth of a carat.
The cost of a diamond tends to increase with its carat weight, as larger or heavier diamonds are rarer. All else being equal, diamonds of equal weight would cost the same. However, since each diamond is unique, the other Cs also come into play in the cost.
A diamond's color grade primarily concerns the absence of color: the closer a diamond is to "colorless," the rarer and more valuable it is. In the 4 C's system, the color scale ranges from D to Z, with D being the most desirable colorless/near-colorless diamond, and each descending grade becoming slightly yellower as you progress through the alphabet to Z. (There are also "fancy" yellow and brown colored diamonds, but these have their own color grading scale.)
Does this mean you need a "D" color diamond? Not necessarily, although they are dazzling. Diamonds graded D, E and F are all considered "colorless" and look very similar to the untrained eye. "Near colorless" diamonds in the G-J range can still make good center stones for your platinum engagement ring, though I/J diamonds can appear slightly yellowish to discerning eyes. K grade is where the yellow tint becomes more apparent. If you plan to set your diamond in a yellow or rose gold ring, you can sacrifice a bit on diamond color as the warm tone of the gold setting can mask the yellow tint of lower-color diamonds to some extent.
Remember, there are still two other Cs to consider for your diamond's value: a D-color diamond with poor clarity or a poor cut is generally much less desirable than a G-color diamond with a good clarity grade and an excellent cut.
A diamond's clarity grade takes note of inclusions (internal flaws), blemishes (external flaws), or their absence (flawless diamond).
Flaws are not necessarily bad as some are not visible to the naked eye and can only be observed with a microscope or jeweler's loupe. Furthermore, some inclusions or blemishes are located on the edge of a diamond and can potentially be hidden if the stone is strategically set in the ring by an experienced jeweler. This is why a diamond grading report also notes the position, number, and visibility of flaws rather than simply stating that they exist.
Here’s how diamond clarity is graded and rated:
Flawless diamonds are the ideal standard, but keep in mind that fewer than 1% of gem-quality diamonds in the world receive this rating, and only 0.001% are also D color. Due to their rarity, these are the most expensive diamonds per carat.
Only 20% of gem-quality diamonds are graded VS2 or higher (flawless or with flaws that are difficult to see).
A trained gemologist must use a powerful microscope to see inclusions in a VVS diamond and may use a 10X jeweler's loupe to see inclusions in a VS diamond, although they may still be difficult to see. Inclusions in an SI1 diamond are easier to see with a jeweler's loupe. SI2 clarity is where inclusions start to be visible to the naked eye, but this varies from diamond to diamond at this grade. Grade I inclusions can be easily visible to the naked eye.
The quality of the last C, Cut, can also affect the visibility of inclusions.
You might think "cut" refers to the shape or style of the diamond, such as a rose cut versus a brilliant cut, or an emerald cut versus a radiant cut, etc. When it comes to the 4Cs, Cut refers specifically to the quality of the round brilliant diamond's cut: the proportion and symmetry of the gem and how the facet angles reflect light within the stone to maximize the diamond's brilliance.
This is the most difficult of the 4Cs to analyze, as part of it is scientific (such as angles and proportions) and part of it is the grader's subjective interpretation of the visual effects, known as Brightness (white light reflection from the diamond), Fire (prismatic dispersion of white light), and Scintillation (the amount of sparkle and the pattern of reflections within the diamond).
Some would argue it is the most important of the 4Cs because a well-cut diamond unleashes the full sparkling potential of the stone, making it appear whiter (more colorless), larger, and diverting attention away from any potential imperfections.
The art and science of diamond cut are graded by the GIA as follows:
If you are choosing a round brilliant diamond center stone for your engagement ring, you will want it to have a Cut grade of at least Good.
