The 4 C's: Colour
What is meant by the colour of a diamond?
The colour (or color if you are American) is probably one of the most visible quality of a diamond. If you think of a diamond, you think of it as colourless and the best quality diamonds are. However, diamonds are rated on an alphabet scale as to how colourless they appear. As a note, this colour scale isn't related to coloured diamonds (i.e. yellow or brown), but to white diamonds. To relate this to everyday terms, think about a pristine white t-shirt. Over time, this can turn a grey or yellow shade. Diamonds do not 'turn' into a colour with use, but depending on their quality, they can have a yellow tinge.
This sounds rather worrying, but don't be afraid! If you know what you are looking for, you will be able to find that perfect diamond.
Colour gradings run from D - Z and I have taken these images from an online source (google images) to show how the gradings relate to colour, both from an aerial and side-on perspective.
Most stores will only give you the option of D - M as anything below those grades are highly undesirable. Therefore, the rest of the article will only deal with these gradings.
We will start at the highest gradings; D - F. These are generally rated as colourless, although only D graded diamonds are truly colourless. However, unless they are very carefully compared, an untrained eye will not detect any significant difference between the diamonds.
G - J diamonds are classed as nearly colourless, although commonly this category is split into two; G - H and I - J, due to the dependance on the chosen metal of the ring itself. G - J diamonds have traces of yellow colour, increasing as the grading decreases. If the metal is white gold, platinum or palladium, a G - H would be preferable. However, if you are using yellow gold, the colour is reflected by the diamond and the yellow tint in the I - J range would be less noticeable.
K - M diamonds have a faint yellow tint that is visible to the naked eye. Although these diamonds are cheaper, they will have considerably less sparkle and shine and I would not recommend using them for large diamonds.
And now I have mentioned price, what is the difference between each of these colour gradings? As I stated in "The 4 C's: Carat", the price of a diamond is determined by a combination of factors, but I will to give you an idea of how the colour relates to price.
For the purpose of this task, I have set the carat to '0.4', the cut to 'Very Good' and the clarity to 'VS1'. (For definitions of these, please see other articles). I am using the 'Blue Nile' website and their lowest colour grading is J.
J: £554
I: £604
H: £738
G: £748
F: £681
E: £739
D: £770
A lot of you are probably wondering why an F grade diamond is cheaper than a G or H grade diamond. The way I came up with those numbers was to take the cheapest diamond that appeared in the search with the parameters listed above. As there are so many variables that affect the price, to be explained in 'Certifications', this explains the price difference. I did debate choosing a diamond that showed the increase in price as the colour grading increased, but I thought this case actually showed a good point. There is a general increase in price as the grading increases, but this is not linear. From D - H, there is very little change in price and also little change in colour to the naked eye.
Our recommendations: If you can afford a D graded diamond, go for it! But it is not necessary. E or F graded diamonds are still classed as colourless, meaning that unless you are a trained gemologist, you will not notice the difference. G - H diamonds are also worth a look as they have only trace of colour. However, as there are not huge differences in price within the top colour gradings, we would suggest considering a higher rated diamond to achieve that extra sparkle!
