Jewellery: The Secret of the 4 Cs

Jewellery: The Secret of the 4 C’s

“4C” is a symbol which is the abbreviation of the capitals of 4 words namely cut, colors, clarity and carat. It is the determined world standard in terms of a diamond’s quality. A good diamond should have the following qualities:

CUT
The cut and varnish of a diamond is of extreme importance. The precision and finesse of the cut determines the refraction and reflection ratios of light by the diamond. The light that gets through one surface, of a properly cut diamond reflects from the other surface and after it is dispersed, it radiates from the upper part called crown. If the cut is too deep at the lower part, part of the light escapes from the lower section named “pavilion.”

Of all the gems processed, the round one is named “brilliant-cut diamond” whereas the others are given names like marquis, oval, heart, emerald, beget, princess depending on their shapes.

CLARITY
Undoubtedly, a diamond is -spotless. A spotted gem would lose value depending on the size and location of the spot and its visibility. During crystallization, some minerals get mixed with diamonds. These small particles are known as inclusions. The diamonds with no or very few inclusions are accepted as flawless.

COLOUR
The first thing that attracts attention on a diamond is its color. Most diamonds look achromatic; however, there are very slight differences of tone. The closer to white the diamond is the more valuable it will be. Those colors like rose, red, blue and black are called “fantasy colors.” During the formation of a diamond, at the high temperature and pressure phase, nitrogen or boron may be mixed in the gem’s structure. These particles give the diamond its color. According to the classification of the Gemology Institute, blue-blanc is the most precious color. There are 7 degrees of white. The first 3 are scarcely found and their price is notably higher.

CARAT
The word carat is derived from the word “carob” which was the name of the seed the ancient jewel merchants used to weigh diamonds. All these seeds are of almost the same weight. In the past, one carat diamond equaled the weight of one carob seed. Today, the 0.2 gram standard is a metric measurement. Each carat is divided into a 100 equal points. One quarter of a carat is 25 points and is written as 0.25. As the carat value goes up, the unit price will also increase.