Color
The color of a diamond has the second
biggest impact on its price, after carat weight. Did you know
that diamonds come in every color of the rainbow?
Grading color in the normal range involves deciding how closely
a stone's bodycolor approaches colorlessness. Most diamonds
have at least a trace of yellow or brown bodycolor. With the
exception of some natural fancycolors, such as blue, pink,
purple, or red, the colorless grade is the most valuable.
If a diamond does not have enough color to be called fancy,
then it is graded in a scale of colors ranging from Colorless
to Light Yellow, "D" through "Z". A diamond with a "D" color
is considered to be colorless. If the color is more intense
than "Z", it is considered fancy. A fancy yellow diamond fetches
a higher price than a light yellow diamond.
The Laboratories only grade diamonds which are unmounted,
or "loose", and they do so under special light. Once a loose
diamond is mounted on a ring, even the trained professional
cannot always tell the difference between, say a "D" color
and an "E" or "F" color diamond!
How much does "color" affect cost?
The effect of all the different properties of Diamond on
Cost is discussed in more detail in the Cost section. For
color, let's take a typical Diamond for an example, and
see what happens when we take it through different color
grades.
Let's start with a 1.00 carat Diamond of K color and VS1
Clarity. If you move up to an H color, you will pay approximately
an extra $1,700 per carat. Move up to F color, the increase
will be approximately $1,100 per carat. Improve the color
to D and the increase will be approximately $900 per carat.
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