Diamonds are
the most expensive and highly anticipated gems the rich expect to have, graded
according to the 4 Cs—Color, Carat, Clarity, and Cut.
Carat refers to the mass of the diamond; one carat is about
200 milligrams. Diamonds with less than one carat are commonly considered equal
to one-hundredth of a carat (0.01 carat or 2 mg)—generally, the price per carat
of a diamond increase directly proportional to carat weight.
The word "carat" originated from the Greek word
keration, which means "fruit of the carob tree." In ancient times,
the carob pod seeds were used as a standard for weight measurements since their
seeds' size was almost always identical. Therefore, it is also the term used to
express the weight of a diamond.
Ct is the abbreviation of a carat, referring to the weight
of a single stone. It expresses the total weight of multiple stones used in a
piece of jewelry. The weight of smaller diamonds is called points. There are
100 points in a carat—another way to look at it is to say that each point
equals 0.01 or one-hundredths of a carat. For example, 0.25 means twenty-five
one-hundredths, so that a 0.25-carat diamond would equal twenty-five points of
one-quarter of a carat.
Diamond carats are often confused with stone sizes even
though they measure weight, so people think a higher carat means
a bigger diamond. The cut of a gemstone can make it appear larger or smaller
than its actual weight. As a result, it is possible to have two diamonds of the
same carat weight appearing in two different sizes. When a gemstone is cut in
appropriate sizes, the maximum light is returned from the top, making it appear
larger. In a poorly cut diamond, much of its weight may be hidden in its base,
making it appear smaller than its weight would imply.
It makes sense that the more carats a diamond has, the more
expensive it is. But it is not as simple as saying that a 1 carat stone costs
precisely half as much as a two-carat one. It would be called "thinking
rational" when nothing about diamonds is rational. A 1 carat stone, for
instance, costs far more than twice that of a half-carat stone—and so
forth—because larger diamonds are rarer than smaller ones. While pulled out of the earth, smaller assorted diamonds are likelier to be found
as big, whopping ones. Therefore, larger single stones are expensive, given
their weight.
A good rule of thumb to remember is that the closer you get
to each subsequent carat, the more expensive the diamond will be. Let us
suppose that you have a 0.8ct stone. Logically, you would think that getting
the full carat might not be much of a jump in price, but indeed it is.
Moreover, the difference between a 0.9 stone and a full carat is somewhat outrageous.
