Quick And Easy Guide To How Diamonds Are Valued

It's an old adage and incredibly clichd but diamonds really are a girl's best friend

, and they're even a man's best friend too, in fact they're the most popular gemstone in the world. They hold their value exceptionally well; in fact many jewellers will offer a life time guarantee on any diamonds they sell. Whether it's brought as an investment, as a beautiful gift or as decoration on a watch, they are expensive and you should probably know a few of the basics about diamonds before you make a purchase.

So why are diamonds so valuable? There are several factors that contribute to their precious status but basically, they are unique, they are rare and this is always valuable. Firstly, diamonds are made purely from the element carbon; in fact they're the only gem to be made from just one element which makes them unique already. Being made from carbon makes them incredibly hard; they have the highest hardness conductivity of any bulk material. Most natural diamonds were made thousands or even millions of years ago, some are even billions of years old and they're formed under the incredibly high temperature and pressure in the earth's mantle (they can be artificially created by re-creating these environments). Although it's a common assumption that most diamonds are clear, it's very rare it find a completely clear diamond, most are very slightly tinted yellow or brown but it's also possible to get natural diamonds in a whole spectra of colours, with red being amongst one of the rarest.

So what is taken into consideration when determining a diamonds value? There are four main factors which are industry standard, the first being cut. When experts talk about cut they don't just mean what shape the gem is, the cut looks at how well the gem has being shaped to preserve its value. The gem should be as symmetrical as possible; each facet needs to reflect as much light as possible which can only be achieved when they're symmetrical. The more light it reflects, the brighter it appear and the more value it holds, a truly perfect diamond should sparkle!

The next consideration taken in a diamonds value is its colour. As I've already mentioned, a truly clear diamond is incredibly rare but most contain such a minute trace of yellow or brown tint it's not visible to the naked eye. Most diamonds have a slight imperfection somewhere (remember how long they've been underground!), and it's a slight flaw that causes the colour in a diamond. It's quite possible for coloured diamonds to be valued higher than those that appear white, in fact in October 2007 a flawless blue diamond sold for $7.98 million in London and a pink five carat diamond sold for $10million in Hong Kong in December 2009. Another factor that influences the diamonds value is the clarity. When you think about how long these gems have spend being compressed in the Earth's mantle it's no surprise they have a few marks. Obviously the fewer flaws and marks a diamond has, the more valuable it is. Lastly, the clarity is assessed. When it comes to valuing gold, the carat is based on the purity, but for gem stones carat is measured by the mass (we've already assessed the purity of the gem when we looked at clarity), and the mass is divisible by 100, if a diamond is deemed flawless and awarded 100 carats it's called a paragon. The cut (the shape) can have a significant impact on the carat, as some shapes file away more of the diamond, the more modern princess cut tends to use less of the diamond than the most popular round cut for example.

Now you know a bit about diamonds and how they're valued, you should be able to decide what you want for the price you want.

by: Kimberlie Hutson

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