Quick and Easy Buying Guide
Carat weight: 1 carat = 200 milligrams = 6.5 mm diameter. Doubling weight doesn't double diameter.
Diamond clarity: FL/IF/VVS/VS = super expensive, near perfect. SI = best value if you can check a photo for obvious inclusions (defects).
Color: D-G = colorless, expensive, only if you have money to burn. H-J = best value. Can go lower in gold metal settings than white metal.
Cut: Better cut ratings let more light into a diamond, making it sparkle more. Very important property, don't skimp here.
Set a budget and minimum cut (Premium). Go J color for gold and I/H for white metals. Go searching for SI1/SI2 clarity diamonds at James Allen. Pick a diamond with small/no inclusions. Choose a ring setting and buy it risk-free (60-day returns).
1.47 Carat Diamonds
Each carat in a diamond is equivalent to 200 mg, so this 1.47 carat diamond weighs 294 mg. Some online retailers provide, amongst other diamond properties, a property called the cost per carat, which gives consumers another way of thinking about the value of a diamond.
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How big a diamond appears does not scale linearly with the carat weight of the diamond, which catches many people out. Savvy diamond buyers have learnt to search for diamonds that do not have round numbers in their carat weight - for example, these buyers will search for a diamond with the carat weight just below one or two carats.
Many people buying a diamond engagement ring for the first time often go overboard with the size of the diamond, not realising how big the diamond will appear when you put it on a small woman's hand.
Although it is of limited usefulness, a lot of people wonder what the average size of a diamond is (about one third of a carat) when they are searching for a diamond themselves.
It's interesting to note that while the small carat diamond (by small i mean one or two carats) may have only been discovered relatively recently, many of the spectacular large diamonds were found many hundreds of years ago, such as the regent diamond of france which was used by two of the king louis's, with a mighty size of 140 carats. Don't forget to think about other diamond characteristics such as diamond cut, which plays a critical role in determining the amount of light that gets into the diamond and the degree to which the diamond sparkles in light.
Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust. John Webster .