The 4C’s of Diamonds

Centuries ago, there were no agreed-upon standards upon which diamonds were evaluated. Early traders and merchants would describe their diamonds’ colour, cut and brilliance with simple terminology and adjectives. A diamond’s cut was simply “made well” or “made poorly”, while its colour could be all manner of words, such as river or water (for near-colourless stones).

Thankfully, in today’s industry, we can now establish the true quality of a faceted diamond with the aid of GIA’s revolutionary 4C’s: cut, clarity, colour, and carat weight.