Diamonds are a woman’s best friend. I don’t know what the heck that really means but women definitely do love them and you would most probably find yourself one day looking for your particular one’s best friend.

And when you do, you always hear about the 4 Cs:

Cut – This is how well the diamond was cut. Cut would dictate brilliance (white light reflecting from the diamond), fire (the colored flashes of light), and scintillation (the dark and light pattern when viewed from the top). There are several popular cuts: round brilliant, marquise, oval, emerald, pear, heart, etc. The round brilliant is the stereotypical diamond shape. There’s also this cut called Hearts and Arrows (also known as Hearts on Fire or Eight Star) where you can see eight arrows when viewing the diamond from the top and eight hearts when viewing the diamond from the bottom with a special viewer.

Color – Color indicates how white the diamond is. Diamonds have a range of colors normally ranging from colorless to brown. This tint is cause by impurities such as nitrogen. It would typically be rated as follows:

• Colorless (D-F) –  Tint nearly undetectable even when compared to white standard
• Near Colorless (G-H) – Tint almost undetectable but apparent when compared to white standard
• Near Colorless (I-J) – Trace of tint just detectable but noticeably apparent when compared to white standard
• Faint Yellow to Faint Brown (K-M) –  Tint apparent and readily apparent when compared to white standard
• Very Light Yellow to Very Light Brown (N-R) – Tint is easily apparent
• Light Yellow to Light Brown (S-Z) – Tint is obvious

Clarity – Clarity is how clear the diamond is. Diamonds often have included in their composition other mineral crystals, feathers, breaks, etc. These are called inclusions and affect the diamond’s clarity and, to a certain degree, its durability. It would typically be rated as follows:

• Flawless (F or FL) – no surface blemishes or inclusions visible with 10x loupe
• Internally Flawless (IF) – insignificant surface blemishes and no internal at 10x magnification
• Very, Very Slightly included (VVS1, VVS2) – extremely difficult to very difficult to find surface blemishes or minute inclusions with a 10x loupe
• Very Slightly included (VS1, VS2) – difficult to somewhat easy to find surface blemishes or minor inclusions with a 10x loupe
• Slightly Included (SI1, SI2) – easy to very easy to find surface blemishes or readily noticeable inclusions with a 10x loupe but appear to be clean without magnification
• Imperfect (I1, I2, I3) – surface blemishes or inclusions are somewhat difficult, easy, or very easy to find without magnification

Carat – This is the weight of the stone. One carat is exactly 200 milligrams. But if it’s all about size to you, then you can just go pick up a big rock and knock yourself silly :P

In addition, there are 2 other Cs:

Conflict – Diamonds generally would  come from legitimate mines in Africa, Canada, and Russia. However, diamonds are being used to finance rebel groups engaged in conflict with governments. You don’t want to be financing war.

Certification – There are organizations like the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), that certify diamonds. They provide certification that attests to a diamond’s specific qualities. In addition, they laser etch the certification number along the girdle of the diamond to prevent the possibility of stone swapping. This is one man-made flaw that actually makes a diamond more valuable.

Parts of a Round Brilliant Cut Diamond

Since the round brilliant is the most popular cut, here are its parts:

Table – is the flat top of the diamond

Girdle – is the thin edge along the widest part of the diamond

Culet – is the pointed tip at the bottom of the diamond

Crown – is the part from the table to the girdle

Pavilion – is the part from the girdle to the culet

So there you go. Happy hunting!