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Diamond Buying Made Easier > Diamond Color

Diamond Color

Diamond color is one of the 4Cs of diamond grading that are used to establish the price of a diamond. Diamond color is relatively easy to understand and to grade because everyone uses an established, universally accepted diamond color grading system.


Many, many years ago there wasn't a diamond color grading system, there was no diamond color chart, but there was instead a big group of different diamond color word terms that people used. Exceptional White, Rare White, Jager, Finest White, Fine White, Blue White, River, Top Wesselton, Wesselton, Top Crystal, Crystal, Top Cape, Cape, Top Silver Cape, Silver Cape, and Low Cape were commonly in use.


Some of these terms referred to the locations where the diamonds of a certain color came from... such as Golconda, Wesselton, or Cape. Others terms tried to describe the color... such as Exceptional White, Rare White, or Fine White. It was all pretty confusing.... one diamond merchants "Fine White" was another diamond seller's "Finest White".


Having grown up in the business, I occasionally heard some of these terms with "Blue White" being the one most commonly used. I haven't heard anyone using any of these diamond color word terms in more than 30 years... except when I was teaching at GIA (the Gemological Institute of America), we needed to explain the terms to our students.


The Diamond Color Grading System was developed by GIA in 1953 and it is now the international standard when we talk about body color in diamonds. GIA started off finding a totally colorless diamond and then found a diamond with a deep enough attractive yellow body color where the price of these diamonds started to rise. Once they had the beginning (D) and the end (Z) of the diamond color scale, they just filled in the blanks with the other grades.


GIA's diamond color grading system starts with a letter grade of "D" for a reason....
In 1953, besides the diamond color word terms, as explained above (Wesselton Top Silver Cape, etc.) which were used mostly in Europe, the common grades used in the US to refer to a diamond color was A, AA, AAA, etc. These letter grades were meaningless as one jeweler's "AA" diamond color grade was the next jeweler's "AAA++" diamond color grade, or another's "Top AA" diamond color grade. Starting from "D" eliminated all of this confusion.


Yellow diamonds beyond the "Z" diamond color grade are referred to as fancy colored diamonds.


diamond color chart



- Important Take Away Points -
Diamond Color


#1- Diamond color grading has some strict rules that need to be followed-

- it is done in a controlled lighting environment
  (using a color balanced light source against a pure white background)

- it must be done by a skilled grader

- using a set of specially graded diamonds of known colors
  (these are called "master stones", typically an E, G, I, K, and M)

- the diamond that is being color graded must not be in a ring, earring, etc.


#2- There are some colorimeters (diamond color grading machines) that are being used but most of the labs are still doing it the "old school" way by using Gemologists. Some gemological laboratories have been known to be a bit more lenient in their diamond color grading... so some diamonds are sent to these gem labs in the hopes of receiving a higher diamond color grade.... this could reflect in a 10 to 15% increase in the diamond's final selling price.

Last century, in one of my former lives, I worked for a jewelry importing company in Japan. The owner of the company had the diamond grading reports done by a Japanese gemological lab in Antwerp. When we went on diamond buying trips to Antwerp, the diamond grading reports always turned out with higher diamond clarity and diamond color grades than what I had expected. Recently, I have seen this happening with diamond grading reports from EGL in Israel.

This demonstrates that not all diamond grading reports are created equally.... do not venture too far from reports from GIA, AGSL, or GCAL. Buying a diamond without a diamond grading report or a grading report from an unknown lab is usually not a good idea. This is especially true if you are considering buying from an online retailer..... if you are dealing with a good local retail jeweler, and you have a lot of trust in them, then you might consider it. Sometimes a good local (trusted) jeweler can offer you a good deal on a diamond that doesn't have a grading report.


#3- Many people, mostly diamond sellers, refer to a D color as being the "best" diamond color grade.... there is no best diamond color! Maybe a D color diamond is best for the diamond seller because they can charge you more for a colorless diamond!

The pricing level of a colorless diamond is based on a rarity factor and not on some beauty scale. I personally like a diamond with a bit of "warmth", maybe a G, H, I, or even a J.... I've even seen some beautiful diamonds that were in the M, N, O color range.


diamond color

#4- Above, I mentioned natural fancy colored diamonds (yellow diamonds with a diamond color grade beyond "Z" or diamonds that are colors other than yellow). There are also color enhanced diamonds, meaning that the diamond's color has been altered. It's pretty interesting, check it out.



3stone-diamond-ring





James Allen Diamond Rings James Allen is a very interesting site because they have actual photos of the loose diamonds in their inventory!

blue nile - remind her

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