Diamond Color

Color, or rather lack of color, is one of the four Cs of diamond grading, the other three being Cut, Clarity and Carat Weight.

Most diamonds have a slight yellowish or brownish tint, which is usually barely noticeable to the untrained eye. The less color a diamond has, the more valuable it is (when taken in conjunction with the other 3 C's, I hasten to add!). Colour is represented by the letters of the alphabet. This is best illustrated with a table:

If an M colour diamond is placed face down next to a D colour stone, the first diamond will look tinted, even to the naked eye. However, the M colour diamond, face up and on its own, will look almost colourless, especially if it's a smaller stone, say up to 5mm or half a carat. Since the price of a half carat  M/SI1 diamond would be about £400, as against £1,000 for a D/SI1, low colour stones represent excellent value for money, especially if the buyer prefers yellow gold for the setting.

Diamonds are also found in a variety of natural colors, such as bright yellow, blue, red, pink or green. These diamonds are extremely rare and can be far more valuable even than colorless diamonds. Two examples of priceless coloured diamonds are the Hope Diamond and the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond, which are both currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

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