One of the biggest determinant features, when you purchase loose diamonds, is its color. Most buyers prefer colorless diamonds, while the trend of opting for colored diamonds is picking up. It is one of the 4C’s that determines the price of a stone. Bear in mind that the color grading scale of a white diamond starts at D and ends in Z; D is colorless, and Z is light yellowish. Shared below are the details regarding the color grading scale and how it affects price, read on to know more about it.
Methods Used To Colour Grade Diamonds
Gemmologists color grade a diamond by comparing it to other reference diamonds called the ‘master set’. Each stone in this set of diamonds is given a letter of the color grading scale. By seeing where the new stone fits in the scale relative to the master set, it is ascertained a letter. Besides, the stone is turned upside down to ensure that its brilliance doesn’t interfere with the color grading. So, when you buy loose diamonds wholesale, it is always good to know what method the gemmologist(s) used to color grade the diamonds to ascertain its value.
The Colour Grading Scale
As stated in the introduction, for white diamonds the color grading scale ranges from D to Z; D being the most desirable colorless ones, and Z being brown or light yellow. Also, the more colorless the stone, the more valuable and vice versa. Any diamond that falls beyond Z is included in the category of fancy colored diamonds. Here the correlation between value and color is opposite to that of colorless diamonds, i.e. more the color the pricier it is and vice versa. The present color grading scale of diamonds was introduced by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in 1954 to standardize the process.
Reason For Colour In Diamonds
Diamonds are formed deep inside the earth’s crust when carbon atoms are subjected to high temperature and pressure. This creates one of the strongest materials on earth, and the presence of impurities and imperfections in its structure gives them the color. The presence of boron impurities results in blue color, radiation causes the stone to turn green, and structural imperfections create brown and pink colors. Also, the yellowish tint of colorless diamonds is due to the presence of nitrogen impurities.
The Correlation Between Colour And Value
Naturally created colored diamonds are valuable except black and brown colored ones. For example, red diamonds are extremely rare, and hence they cost much more than colorless diamonds.
These are the points that you should bear in mind regarding the color when you purchase loose diamonds.