Fancy Color Diamond Grading

Fancy color diamonds come in all colors and shades of the rainbow. Among them, yellow ones are most common. They are usually used in fashion jewelry.

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Diamonds being very precious and expensive, certain factors should be taken care of before buying them. As known to all, the Four Cs are the most important characteristics to be considered for judging the quality of a diamond. But these factors differ slightly for fancy colored ones.

Diamond Color Grading

The color grading technique for fancy color diamond is slightly similar to that of colored gemstones. The two basic aspects to be considered while judging the color of the colored diamond are Hue and Intensity. Hue refers to the color of the diamond which may include pink, red, blue etc. Intensity means how light or dark the color is. The more intensity, more beautiful will the diamond look and more expensive it will be.

Diamond Cut Grading

Like colorless diamonds, the most excellent/ideal cut colored diamonds emits maximum brilliance. A colored diamond with a good cut derives its most intense color, hence increasing its worth and beauty. Facets add more color to the diamond and if cut properly, gives the best appearance to the stone.

Diamond Clarity Grading

For a colored diamond, clarity is not the most factor for judging its quality. Even a lower clarity diamond will appear inclusion-free depending on the color intensity. Secondly, if the color of the inclusion is same as that of the diamond, then it will be nearly invisible. Also the appearance of the inclusions (if any) will be noticed only if they are present directly on the table of the diamond. Usually fancy colored diamonds with higher clarity are rarely found.

Diamond Carat

Carat weight of a colored diamond is computed or analyzed in the similar way as that of the colorless ones. The more carat weight, more expensive it will be.

Diamond Certification

Apart from the four Cs, the certification of the diamond should also be taken care of. All the major gem laboratories like GIA, IGI, and EGL certify and provide report for fancy color diamonds. The certificate ensures that the diamond is naturally colored and an not enhanced one.

American Gem Society (AGS) Laboratories

Many gemological laboratories provide certificates which prove the authenticity of a diamond and specify its minute facts and characteristics. One such laboratory is the American Gem Society Laboratories (AGSL). This laboratory provides diamond grading services to jewelry industry only, which means that they accept diamonds only from jewelers and manufacturers.

AGSL is known for grading the diamond cut including the Ideal Cut. It is also known for grading the fancy cut diamonds like Emerald, Oval and Princess cut. According to this laboratory, the most important among the four Cs of a diamond is the Cut, because this feature determines the amount of refraction or reflection of light.

The AGS Laboratories offer various reports depending on the type of diamond information required. The most preferred among them is the Diamond Quality Document (DQD) which includes the complete analysis of the four Cs of the diamond: Color Grade, Cut Grade, Carat weight and Clarity grade.

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AGS Diamond Grading System

Grading is allotted in numerical form from the range of zero to ten. For Diamond Cut, zero means the best cut (Ideal cut) and ten indicates the lowest one. In the Verbal form, cut can be classified as AGS Ideal or Excellent or from Very Good, Good to Fair or Poor. The same numerical form goes for the Clarity feature of a diamond. The verbal descriptor for indicating the clarity of the diamond is same as that of GIA (Gemological Institute of America). For Diamond Color, zero indicates colorless and ten indicates light yellow or light brown.

AGSL provides easy-to-read grading scale hence making it easy for the consumers to evaluate and verify the quality of the diamond they have purchased.

Ideal Cut Diamonds

The “Cut” plays a significant role in the four Cs of a diamond. It not only defines the basic facet arrangement but also affects its brilliance. The cut of a diamond can be classified based on how the light reflects from the stone and hence creating particular amount of brilliance from the diamond.

The different types of diamonds are:
Shallow Cut
Ideal Cut
Deep Cut

Among them, Ideal cut diamonds are mostly preferred since light reflects from the top of the stone hence creating maximum brilliance among all the types. Also, irrespective of the direction from where the light has entered into the stone, all the light gets reflected increasing the diamond’s brilliancy and radiating exquisite light. In shallow cut ones, the light refracts away from the bottom hence resulting the diamond to loose its brilliance and making the stone appear glassy and opaque whereas in deep cut diamonds refraction of light takes place from the sides making it dull and lifeless.

This categorization depends on the proportion in which the diamonds are cut. An Ideal Cut Diamond has the proportion as shown below:

These measurements differ for different gemological laboratories.

Different grading laboratories have assigned different names to the diamonds with Ideal cut like Superb Ideal Cut, American Ideal Cut and even Excellent Cut. GIA (Gemological Institute of America) refers to it as Excellent Cut diamonds.

Since producing such diamonds requires exact and precise measures, they usually cost more than other diamond cuts.