Diamond (Grading Page)

Colors

| White | Black | Cognac  | Green | Teal | Blue | Yellow |

Gemstones: Diamond
Diamonds are the hardest of all natural substances. They have been cherished for millennia by royalty as the ultimate symbol of power and wealth. People of ancient India found diamonds on the ground after monsoon storms and thought that they were solidified lightning.

Diamond Grading
In the mid 1950's the Gemological Institute of America developed the scale that is used pretty much world-wide today. The scales were broken into two categories: color and clarity, because each is a separate element. One has nothing to do with the other. The clarity of a diamond refers to the number of inclusions (internal marks) and blemishes (external marks) the diamond may have. For the most part, the clarity of a diamond is determined by how visible those marks may be. Clarity is graded on a scale which ranges from Fl (flawless) to I-3 (very obvious and potentially damaging marks). The GIA color scale replaced terms like "river" and "cape" with letter grades from D (a total absence of color) to Z (very deeply colored). The following charts represent the general grading guidelines.