Jewelry - Diamonds

The best and most expensive diamonds are popular investments. Sometimes investment stones are made to jewelry, and sometimes they are kept in safety deposit as they are. They are good investments and additions to the portfolio. Just like gold, they keep their value, when economies go down.

The worst ones are used in industrial purposes. They are used for drilling and cutting. Diamond is one the hardest thing in the world. Suits well for drilling and cutting things, which are hard, but not as hard as diamond. Industrial diamonds are quite cheap, they are not as clean as the jewel and investment stones.

Record players are also equipped with the diamond. The heads are made from diamonds. In the past heads were made from sapphire, and diamond heads were used only in the most expensive players. Diamond head lasts longer, but it consumes records more than sapphire head.

There are also artificially made Diamonds. Synthetic diamonds are much cheaper than real diamonds. Most of the synthetic diamonds are used in industrial purposes. Their quality do not match the real diamonds.

The prices are very different in each diamond usage category. One carat industrial diamond costs less than $1 000, common jewel stone $7 000, investment stone about $20 000.

The diamond jewelry is good gift to a young girl / woman. No matter how small or big the diamonds are. It is always very easy to pawn and cash them in the desperate need of money. And if the girl does not end up into the hands of the booze loving scoundrel / bum, she can use them in parties and other special occasions.

The availability of the most expensive stones is a big problem. Only one or two new red diamonds come to the markets per year, and they are usually quite small.

The most important thing in diamond is it's weight. The unit is carat, which is 200 milligrams, 5 carat diamond weights 1 gram. Biggest diamonds in the world, weights over 100 carats or 20 grams. Carat weight of the jewel diamond is usually smaller than one. 0.01 - 0.05 carat weights are common in cheaper diamond jewelry.

Besides the carat weight, quality of the stone is very important. Top quality 2.5 carat diamond costs as much as 5 carat jewel quality diamond.

All expensive diamonds and almost all diamond jewelry have a certificate, which has all information about the quality of the stone / stones. Before you can read it, you must know, what letters and other things on the certificate means :

Color / Clarity	IF/LC	VVS1	VVS2	VS1	VS2	SI1	SI2	SI3	I-P1	I-P2	I-P3
D	497	401	361	296	215	164	134	92	72	42	24
E	389	364	311	265	206	160	130	89	70	41	22
F	342	308	277	234	198	152	122	86	67	40	21
G	246	226	206	189	173	142	117	81	63	39	21
H	191	179	166	158	147	127	109	75	60	37	20
I	155	150	142	130	120	109	99	68	57	35	19
J	124	119	114	107	99	91	84	62	52	31	19
K	112	108	104	97	91	82	76	60	45	30	17
L	87	84	82	78	71	65	58	50	39	29	16
M	75	73	72	71	61	55	50	43	32	26	16

In the table you can see the values of the white diamonds, compared to the common jewel stone. The common jewel stone has color I or J ( slightly tinted white ), and clarity of SI1 ( eye clean ).

Clarity tells how many black spots and how much dirt there is in the diamond. SI1 is common stone in high quality jewelry, IP1 is used in lower quality jewelry.

Clarity	% from common high quality jewel stone ( SI1 )
IF/LC	303	Loupe Clean
VVS1	245	Minor errors which can be detected with loupe
VVS2	220
VS1	180	Major, loupe detectable, errors
VS2	131
SI1	100	Eye Clean
SI2	82
SI3	56
I-P1	44	Visible errors, can be seen without loupe
I-P2	26
I-P3	14

Diamonds have two color categories. The traditional white diamonds, and colored diamonds. Colored diamonds are often called Fancy Color diamonds.

Colored diamonds are not used by industry, Fancy diamonds are used in Jewelry and Investments only. Fancy Color diamonds, are quite new. There were times, when they were thrown away because they are not white. Intensity of the color is very important with Fancy Diamonds, the whiteness is important with White Diamonds.

Yellow shades in white diamond lessens the value of the stone. When you go to the jewelry shop, you are informed, if the stones are Wesselton, Top Wesselton or River quality stones.

Wesselton is very famous color classification. River diamonds are so rare, that hardly anyone knows, what you are talking about, when you talk about your River Necklace. Although your 75 carat River necklace costs 2 millions, and with Top Wesselton stones it would've cost million, and with jewel quality stones the necklace would've cost only 500 000 dollars.

The color table continues to the cheaper diamonds, which do not have very much value. At certain point the White Diamond gets Fancy Yellow / Brown diamond classification, and it's value starts to raise.

Fancy Color diamonds have also White Diamond like color classification. The table is made with real names, instead of the letters which are used with White Diamonds. With Fancy Diamonds, the classification table is based on the amount of color.

In the whole color palette diamond prices varies very much. The price is compared to the white diamond, which has similar qualities than the Fancy Color diamonds. The names are the official names, percentages are approximations.

Color	%
Black	25
Light Brown - Light Champagne - Champaign	45
Fancy Brown - Fancy Champagne - Champaign	100
Fancy Light Yellow	100
Yellowish Brown	100
White	100
Brownish Yellow - Cognac	150
Fancy Yellow	225
Orange Brown - Grey	250
Orangy Yellow	500
Fancy Intense Yellow - Canary	590
Brownish Orange	650
Orange	750
Reddish Brown	750
Lime Green	900
Light Blue	900
Light Brownish Pink	1,000
Light Pink	1,000
Fancy Pink	2,750
Purplish Pink	3,250
Blue	4,250
Intense Green	5,000
Intense Pink	6,000
Intense Blue	7,500
Red	30,000

Black diamonds are new diamonds, the lack of demand has kept the prices down. Now they are coming to jewelry, and the price is quite likely to raise.

Cutting is third quality issue in diamonds. The cutting is done by humans and machines, errors in cut are quite rare. There are no price tables for failed cuts.

Almost all diamonds have triple excellent cut, which means, that everything is done by the book.

Ideal cut means even more precise cut, you can see hearts and arrows from the cut. All recently carved stones, which have a good color and clarity, have Ideal cut.

The diamonds are almost always cut to the predefined shapes. There are 11 different shapes to which diamonds are cut. Brilliant is the most popular cut shape of the diamond, trilliant is another famous diamond cut.

Knowledge about brilliant and trilliant cuts belongs to the general knowledge. There are very many people, who left the reference for the diamond away, and talk only about brilliants and trilliants. Assuming, that everybody knows, that they are diamonds.

The shape of the diamond does not affect to the value of the stone. The shape of the raw diamond dictates the possible cuts. The weight of the diamond is one of the key factor's in value. You must always choose the shape, which keeps the weight as big as possible.

When you buy jewelry, and you look the official classification, granted by trusted institute, they have almost always better classification, than the stone really is. You cannot get the ready made cut stones from the whole sellers and mining companies with the prices they sell the jewelry. The diamond is more expensive than the jewelry to which the stone is attached. Bit difficult situation for the people, who invest to the high quality and very expensive diamonds. have to check the origin of the stone, and if it is jewelry stone, must send it to re-evaluation. So that you can get real classification certificate for the stone.

It is also possible to increase the quality of the stone afterwards. Diamond people says, that the improvements are not permanent. By the time the stone returns to it's original shape.