Understanding Diamond Carat
The carat of diamonds is the easiest to understand of the 4 Cs. But even then, there are several things to take note of. The carat of a diamond essentially means the weight of the diamond. 0.200 grams = 1 Carat. Why not use grams instead like when we buy gold? The truth is, diamonds are so light, you might feel better paying $10k for a 1 Carat then 0.200 of a carbon rock.
You may also come across the term one point. One point is equal to 1/100 of a carat. So 0.5 carat stone = 50point. Often, several short forms are used. Below are the few short form
– pt = points
– ct = carat
– ctw = carat total weight.
Grooms to be beware of the term ctw. When jewelers state ctw or total carat weight, the weight stated is the carat value of the center stones with all the other side stones in the set piece of jewellery. So a 1 carat ctw ring may mean a 0.9 carat center diamond with other smaller side diamonds making up the remaining 0.1 carat.
Another thing to take note of is that diamond carats are usually rounded to 2 decimal places. The way it works is that it is always rounded down except when the 3rd decimal place is 9. So a 0.498ct = 0.49 ct and 0.499ct = 0.50ct.
The last thing we grooms need to know is the magic weight of a diamond. There are several weight of a diamond which is more desirable and therefore more popular and more expensive. The perfect example is 1 carat. Therefore a 0.99 carat diamond, while not looking any smaller than a 1 carat diamond, will cost a lot less in price. Of course, your carat loving fiancée might just get pissed that you got her a 0,99 carat diamond instead of 1 carat. But if you are not planning to give her the certificate, she probably can’t tell the difference J (Don’t tell her you learn this from here)
The common Magic carats are 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2, 3 etc….(most of us cannot afford more than 1 carat anyway)
Hope this helps, shall go into the other 3 Cs next time.
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