It is a definitely very important occasion for you and your fiance when you are shopping for an engagement ring. Naturally, it has to be a diamond ring . So, before you select an engagement ring to suit your taste and your budget, you should have some basic idea regarding how the diamonds are graded. Because, the price of a diamond depends on how it is graded. Diamonds are graded by jewelers using four characteristics which are known as Four Cs of diamond. These are: 1Cut 2Clarity 3Color 4Carat Weight There is another aspect in diamond selection which is called Fifth C: 1Certificates We will now examine these briefly. Cut It is the most important characteristic to be considered while selecting a diamond. Cut of a diamond would determine its brilliance. Clarity Diamonds generally contain some inner defects or inclusions created during its formation in nature. It is visibility, number and size of inclusions that would define clarity of diamond. Clearer diamonds would appear more brilliant and hence, would be more costly. Color It is colorless diamonds which allow more refraction of light within it producing more sparkle. As the color of the diamond varies from totally colorless to light yellow, its value as diamond gets reduced. Carat Weight Weight of a diamond is measured in terms of a unit called Carat. Again a Carat is divided into 100 points. It means a 75 point diamond weighs 0.75 carat. The price of a diamond depends on its weight and increases exponentially with increasing weight. Certificate A few renowned laboratories of the world like GIA, AGS or EGL grade a diamond and give a diamond grading report which is generally known as the Certificate. Price of a diamond would depend on the Certificate it carries. Now that we have some knowledge regarding the different factors we should look into before buying a diamond, let us see how we could buy our desired ring as economically as possible. As you must have learnt earlier, the cut of a diamond is the most important factor for selecting a diamond. The cut of a diamond determines how much light passes through and how much light is reflected back to the eye. Lots of light would 'leak' if the diamond is too thinly cut whereas a well cut diamond would have lots of sparkle. Therefore, badly cut diamonds may cost even 50% of the price of well cut diamonds. You should also keep it in mind that some cutting defect might make diamond more liable to breaking. It is to be understood clearly that higher clarity of a diamond does not guarantee that it would be more sparkling. Actually, the clarity factor is much important in selection of a diamond unless its poor clarity is visible to the eye. The price of a diamond increases with increased weight. But a one carat diamond would cost significantly more than a 90 point diamond. The difference in weight would not be very significant, but you will save lot money buying such a diamond. Another important factor is the shape of the diamond. Though round diamonds sparkle most, they look smaller while oval or pear shaped diamonds would look bigger to the eye. Another point you could keep in your mind that instead of buying one big diamond you may a number of smaller diamonds because it would cost you much less. A diamond ring with one carat diamond might cost you $7,500 while another ring with three smaller diamonds of total weight of one carat might be available for only $3,250. Color is another factor which determines the price of a diamond. But, it is not necessary you should go for only colorless diamonds. By setting them using white gold or platinum, they would look whiter. For yellowish diamond, they could be set in gold to make it look whiter. You may keep these points in mind while buying diamond and you will be saving a lot of money.
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