Congratulations on the marriage, anniversary, milestone, or occasion—the love you’ve chosen to celebrate with a diamond. And because you’re embarking on one of the safest, smartest, most significant purchases life has to offer. At a very good time, too.

But you’re also experiencing some sticker-shock right about now. Diamonds aren’t just expensive, they’re a lot more expensive than they were a year ago. Even on the price sensitive Internet, the four types of diamonds most frequently bought on-line had, by May 2008, seen price hikes of an average of 18.66 percent year to year.

And is it really safe to buy that diamond on-line? After the house and car, this may be the most expensive purchase of your life. Certainly, the Internet is a fantastic place to start house and car shopping. But to buy? Are you nuts or something?

DIAMOND PRICING: WHY YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

In a perfect world, the decision on which diamond, and where to purchase it, would be made regardless of price. Rather, it would be made much like the event your diamond is celebrating—chosen for its beauty, significance, rarity, trustworthiness. In short, because it attracted you more than the others—and below, we will discuss what it is about a certain diamond that can draw you to it like no other. This guide will help you cleave as close as possible to that principle while keeping a foot in the real world, where money is short. Its aim, in short, is to help draw you to your best diamond for your money.

It’s important first to distinguish between diamond price and diamond price hikes, for they have very different impacts on you, the end consumer.

Price. A very wise man I met on a park bench once told me: “Price is an illusion.” In August 1987, this man had sold his business, had $67,000 to spare, and a feeling that the stock market was absurdly high. Though he’d never made a trade in his life, he sold calls on the S&P and within two months was worth millions.

The high price of diamonds is attributed to two principal causes. The first, found readily at industry-related sites, relates to the diamond itself—a combination of its rarity, the difficulty in recovering it, and its clarity, color, carat weight, and cut. The second, found at sites hosting pundits with and/or critical of the trade, relates to the “business end” of the diamond and the pressures of the global economy. An increasingly globalized, demand-driven, competitive trade. The cost of marketing. Spot shortages. The simple fact that it is a trade conducted in U.S. dollars, currently worth far less than they should be. And the far less simple fact that it is a trade done largely on credit (the industry calls it “memo” or “terms”), making for a market highly prone to variable interest rates.

Suffice it to say: A diamond of quality is rarer and harder to get to than you can possibly imagine; and the industry is now so competitive, automated, and rational that price is set long before you see it. In short, a diamond’s price is what it is. Yes, it is an illusion about a piece of crystallized carbon that does not favor you, the end consumer. It is, however, one that is systematically and rationally agreed upon by the very intelligent men and women who have been plying and refining the diamond trade for six centuries.

Price hikes, on the other hand, tend to be more specific to the business end. Worrying as they are to the trade, such hikes actually favor the end consumer. Prices for both rough and polished diamonds to the trade have risen almost twice what they have at retail in 2008. It’s one of the “unintended consequences” of huge 21st century changes in the diamond trade, all intended to protect price as the industry moved from what had been all but a monopoly, where price was protected at the supply side, to a more visible and rational supply chain.

One should never buy a diamond as an investment. Unlike previous downturns in the trade, however, where pressures forced retail prices down, the diamond you buy this year will almost certainly fetch more next year. It will certainly cost more.

Remember the 18.66 percent average rise in Internet diamonds? The difference between price and price hike is the chief cause of that high figure, and a chance to reflect on this revolutionary way we now shop. In the privacy of our relationship to our monitors, we shop with the illusion that we are engaged in some form of browser-barter, that we are locating some hidden source, or amassing our virtual collectiveness to buy below retail, below wholesale even, and “sticking it to the man.”

The Internet diamond vendor, however, is simply the new man in the diamond pipeline, prone as any to price hikes within the trade. Their “discounts,” which are often illusory to begin with, come from lesser overheads, often chief among them, that many sites do not own or actually possess diamonds they are selling, but are rather listing stones currently offered to the trade. They can do that while jewelers cannot. As wholesale prices spike, that advantage becomes smaller, shrinking margins proportionally and squeezing prices up.

Does that mean it’s no longer, or never was, advisable to buy a diamond

For almost a century, a diamond was a “blind purchase,” made almost on faith, as the market-savvy and gemological learning curves needed for a truly educated consumer were too steep for most to master. The Internet has forever changed that. Knowledge is, indeed, power. A little knowledge, however, is still a very dangerous thing, and browsing is a great way to get a little knowledge. Eli Avidar, managing director of the Israeli Diamond Institute, recently summed it up very well: “What used to be a blind purchase is now a confused purchase.”

Anyone embarking on this purchase should use the Internet, and this guide as a form of driver’s ed. Learn the “rules of the road” covered below. Then go to a trusted jeweler and get behind the wheel. Many times. As you’ll presently see, the more diamonds you look at, hold, compare to each other, the closer you’ll come to an unconfused purchase.

DIAMOND VALUE: WHEN YOU SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE

Given that you cannot “beat” the man, your job as a diamond buyer is not to buy “cheap” but to locate value among the myriad stones out there. Value? It’s the difference between what you paid and what you got. Did you get your money’s worth?

Given that price is an illusion, however, what constitutes value with a diamond? Add to that the likelihood that many of the diamonds you will look at will be set in jewelry, fashioned by designers whose task is to add value by melding a diamond and its precious metal setting with their own flair, and your task can feel quite hopeless quite quickly.

It shouldn’t, however. A good part of the jeweler’s job is to simplify this complex decision, and if she’s still in business, she’s probably pretty good at her job. The moment it does begin to feel that way, however, go back to why you’re buying a diamond. That’s your half of the value equation, and one that will call for: self-awareness; communication between the giver and receiver (if the diamond is shopped for together); and flexibility as you learn more.

En route, you may soon be learning two of the jeweler’s great trade secrets. The first is the cliche of the man hoping to economize while the woman tries to spend is, for reasons no jeweler I know has fathomed, reversed with the diamond engagement ring, almost all the time.

The second is the occasion of buying and presenting your diamond is among the last where this “gift of love” will have anything to do with the two of you. Women wear diamonds for themselves and for other women. Take it from a professional rooster-in-the-henhouse: When I ask a woman after her diamond, I am invariably the first man ever to do so. I’ll also learn that she, far more often than he, remembers its clarity and color, while he will know its size, to a point (there are 100 points in a carat). Both will remember its price, though on occasion, the man has told me privately he’d actually spent more than he let on.

Self-awareness about diamonds is knowing, admitting, or learning which qualities are most important to you. If the heart wants a diamond to make an impression, it is up to you to know, admit, or learn which impression it wants to make. Is it to be able to say (and show): “This is a two carater”? Or is it: “This is a flawless diamond”? Or “This is the most well-cut diamond out there”? Or even: “This is Ritani.”

If a diamond is shopped together, such decisions will be made by communicating along a steep but ascendable learning curve. And be advised it will likely be stressful. Jewelers learn early to keep a quiet, frozen smile on while battles are waged across the counter, far more virulently than the joyous occasion would herald.

Thus the need for flexibility. The days when a diamond engagement ring was a single solitaire round brilliant diamond have passed. Round brilliants now account for less than 50 percent of engagement rings sold in the U.S., and a fast-growing percentage are three or five stone rings, often purchased as semi-mounts. The smaller, flanking side diamonds and possibly a splash or two of pavé (diamond walls or accents created with diamonds as small as a point apiece) are already in such settings, requiring you only to select a center stone (“main event”) from the jeweler’s collection of unset loose diamonds. Such pieces are known in the trade largely as “total carat weight” (tcw.) jewelry.

With tcw. rings and other jewelry, savings can be even greater. Owing to the rarity of large rough diamonds, prices climb exponentially as size (carat weight) goes up. The “two carater” your heart wants can flexibly be had for significantly less—if the main event is, say, 85 points, side stones are 45 points apiece, and the remainder accomplished in affordable pavé.

Rarely, if ever, should tcw. jewelry be purchased on-line. Take the aforementioned two carater. It will be nigh on impossible, even for a large jewelry manufacturer with a great number of stones at his disposal, to pair all but identical .45 point sides to create a ring weighing exactly two carats. Industry standards (and the law) allow tolerances of as much as 5 percent from stated weights. Short of taking the ring apart and weighing its diamond content, you must be able to trust your jeweler. More important, as any who’ve been in a Sears or Penney in the past 20 years can aver, tcw. jewelry is all about the look and feel. Multi-stone pieces should have a certain heft to them. Those $199 1 carat rings you see in your Sunday supplements, for the most part, are tcw. jewelry.

With gold and platinum at all-time highs, flexibility with metals can add hugely to savings. If your heart is set on a white metal, consider the large number of palladium semi-mounts (and wedding bands). And speaking of wedding bands, consider making both purchases together—or more frequently, after the ring has been sized or completed from semi-mount to finished. Not only will you be able to pair rings that will be worn together, you’ll often find the jeweler in an accommodating position. Why? He knows that as the blessed day approaches and the bills and tensions start piling up, you might not be back for that wedding band.

DIAMOND COST: THE ALL-IMPORTANT 4C’S

Flexibility will be most rewarded, however, as you tackle the all-important 4C’s. Consider the jeweler you’re shopping. And the cutter, dealer, or manufacturer she bought from. The globe-trotting diamantaire he in turn bought from. Even the miner who unearthed or fished out the original rough. All, to varying degrees, are constrained by the 4C’s. Color (whiteness), clarity (flawlessness), carat weight (size), even cut (a mark of the cutter’s skill in turning rough into polished) determine their margins, ergo the price they can and must charge you. You, however, are under no such constraints. Unless, of course, you were born to wear a D/F 5 carat ideal round brilliant. More power to you.

You’re looking for value. So it’s important to ask: What’s a diamond worth? And how do glyphs like D, F, 5 carat, and ideal RB tell me what it’s worth?

First, it’s important to know that’s a bit like asking: What’s a house worth? Is a 3.5bdrm 2bth worth less than a 4bdrm 1.5bth? It would be nice to know if it had a garage, where it was, if it was termite-free, if it was slapdash or well-built. Flexibility and knowledge give you the power to determine value as you soak in the 4C’s of many diamonds. You must, however, truly look at them, rather than at pictures or diagrams on a site. Only then will value be in the eye of you, the beholder.

COLOR AND THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

That D is a grade, given by a trained diamond grader, along a scale introduced in the 1950s by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the first and still most widely used diamond lab. It ranges from D (colorless, and very expensive) to Z (pale yellow and cheap). Anything beyond Z is a “fancy yellow,” which, paradoxically enough, may well be more expensive than a D.

The D signifies this diamond is a pure carbon crystal, compressed into a specific lattice formation that makes it gem quality. There are 75 forms of naturally occurring diamond, and only one is a gemstone. It will be icy white when polished, and it is all but nonexistent. Of the 100-plus million carats of rough diamonds mined each year, a handful or two are pure white, ergo the huge cost.

Every other diamond has traces of a gas that was trapped inside the carbon lattice during its creation in a volcano roughly a billion years ago. Usually it’s nitrogen, which causes a yellow or brown tint. Varying with the amount of nitrogen traces, that tint can render diamonds everything from “colorless” (D, E, and F) to near colorless (G-J), and on down the color scale to Z diamonds, which appear almost as yellow as they are white.

Color, if you are shopping together, will often be the first test of your flexibility and ability to communicate, for a simple, largely unknown reason. Women have a keener eye for color than men. The difference between a costly F color and a far more common H, while imperceptible to him, may be jarring to her. The bulk of diamonds you’re likely to be looking at will be in the G-J range. Color may also be the first time you’ll really get the importance of looking at many diamonds. On first appearance, there is a very small difference between even a D and an H.

Why bother with the higher colors if that’s the case? Simple reason: As the days, months, and years go by, you will see that color ever stronger. It’s how the “mind’s eye” works. I’ve met women who, 10 or 20 years later, couldn’t stand the yellowness of her K diamond and traded up. Bear in mind, some mind’s eyes find these tints appealing, some very fine ones in fact. A number of jewelers, particularly ones of middle age, are smitten with certain K colors, designing pieces that enhance rather than hide that color.

What you will not notice, however, is the importance of having a jeweler with her own trained color eye and experience in the diamond trade. Why?

Remember that trained diamond grader? He made his decision by placing that diamond between two other diamonds (known as “master stones”) on a white paper tray, then deciding which of the two it was more like. That simple: More like the G? Or more like the H? Did he do his job well? Almost certainly. However, some diamonds graded correctly as Gs are closer to the G master stone (and whiter) than others. Same price, better color. Some Hs, similarly, are closer to G than other Hs. Same price, better color. If the jeweler is good and buys from better dealers, cutters, and jewelry manufacturers, a “cherry picking” will have occurred long before you see the diamond.

Remember the advice to consider white metals for white diamonds? It’s because yellow gold makes white diamonds appear more yellow. Color is thus more difficult to discern in finished jewelry. No grader could tell you right off the bat if a mounted stone was a D or an E (a very good one could pick out an F), or a G versus H. Let him wear it for a week or two, and he’ll know. Similarly, color is more discernible as diamonds get bigger. As you begin to judge smaller diamonds on the basis of color, bear in mind those faint yellow tinges will add up over time in the mind’s eye.

Once you’ve made or narrowed your choice of diamonds, I’d advise two “color tricks” before sealing the deal. You might notice a small mood-switch as you linger in a jewelry store, a certain brightening of spirit, optimism? Part of it may be due to MR-16 halogen, a high-wattage light that brings out whiteness, even blueness in diamonds. Note also that you’ll have been looking at diamonds on a black felt, again, accentuating their whiteness. Not a gimmick—why shouldn’t a jeweler show her offering optimally?—but not the conditions you’ll be looking at your diamond henceforth.

As you’re sampling, ask for something white to look at the diamonds against. Some jewelers will even have a set of master stones and a white tray for your own color appraisal. Then ask to see your diamond by a window, even outside.

While not truly related to this first “C,” there is an optical characteristic peculiar to a large number of the world’s diamonds that may offer a terrific opportunity for value. It’s known as “fluorescence,” a tendency to exhibit a bluish hue under certain lighting conditions, specifically ultra-violet light, but also direct sunlight and, you guessed it, fluorescent light (actually because such bulbs are high in UV content). In very rare cases, fluorescence can negatively affect the appearance of a diamond—it will make the stone appear less brilliant, even “cloudy.” In all cases, it will make for a less expensive diamond. Though diamonds once fetched a premium for this characteristic, fluorescence is not appreciated within the trade. It may not bother you in the slightest. You might very well actually enjoy the occasional bluish tint.

CLARITY: TAKE A TEST DRIVE

The F, short for flawless, meant the diamond was entirely free of characteristics (known as inclusions, feathers, blemishes, graining) when viewed under the 10x magnification of a jeweler’s loupe.

IF, or internally flawless, means there are no such characteristics within the diamond itself, but, perhaps, that invisible graining marks (indications of the carbon-lattice structure) do exist along the surface. In VVS (for very, very slightly included), these characteristics are present but just visible at 10x. A tad less minutely, though still imperceptibly so, is VS (very slightly included). Even less minutely (and probably the bulk of diamonds you will be looking at) are SIs, where small “flaws” are visible at 10x. I (included) refers, sadly, to most of the world’s diamonds, the content of almost every tcw. piece or loose diamond you’ll see in the chains and print ads, and almost all the tcw. pieces sold “below wholesale” on-line. There will be a number after each grade (except F and IF), 1 being for the better clarities, and up to 3 (with I and some SI diamonds) bringing up the rear.

Clarity will likely offer your optimal opportunity for flexibility. Dealers communicate largely in terms of clarity, almost to the exclusion of the other 4C’s, unless the occasion calls. It’s the cross they must all bear, and the quality by which most of the world’s diamonds are distinguished from each other.

It needn’t be yours. These “flaws” are by no means created equal. Nor are they truly flaws, but rather aspects incurred in the diamond’s volcanic formation. Some can draw you to a diamond, with “inclusions” that are actually micro-diamonds, or small garnet or even ruby crystals. Some SIs have dark, unattractive inclusions, while others have “feathers” (tiny internal cracks in the lattice) that may not bother you in the slightest. Same price, better clarity. One SI2 may be riddled with small, barely noteable inclusions. Another may have a larger one on the diamond’s “girdle,” the faceted area between the upper (“crown”) and lower (“pavilion”) sections, which may be hideable beneath the prongs or bezels that will secure the diamond in its setting.

No site I know of provides 10x images of clarity characteristics. A jewelry shop is the only place to test-drive a diamond for clarity. As with cherry-picked colors, a superior jeweler will enable and even direct you to such choices by virtue of her superior eye and buying savvy.

To that end—and this is extra-credit stuff, but nonetheless recommended in great earnest: You’d do yourself a service by learning how to use a jeweler’s loupe and a pair of tweezers, both of which a jeweler should be happy to provide and assist you with. Here are the basics of how to use a loupe.

First, for a loose diamond, have it sitting crown-side down, before securing two edges of the girdle in the tweezers, squeezing slightly. Do this with your dominant hand, then transfer the tweezers to your other hand. You’ll now be using your dominant hand to hold the loupe. You can do this standing up, but it’s easier seated.

It will usually be easier with round brilliant diamonds. For many fancy shapes, and diamonds a carat or larger, feel free to eschew tweezers and instead hold the diamond between the thumb and forefinger of your non-dominant hand.

If you’re right-handed, insert that index finger through the loupe’s protective case, which now serves as your fingerhold. You will now have three fingers of each hand free. Place them against each other to form a base that feels comfortable, and which leaves a half-inch to an inch between the diamond and the loupe. That distance will vary with your eyesight—and yes, feel free to determine whether or not it works best with eyeglasses if you wear them. Then bring the loupe up to within an inch or two of your left eye and start looking.

Looking for what? At this point, you’re looking only for clarity’s sake. Do it until you find the SI2 or VS1. Study it, then put the loupe down and look at the diamond with your naked eye. You will now either see, or be bothered by, the “flaws” you’ve become intimate with. Or not. You will, however, see, or rather feel, whether the clarity of this diamond will be a value issue over time as you live with it.

CARAT WEIGHT: GOING BEYOND THE MAGIC SIZES

Seemingly a cut and dry C—100 points in a carat, right?—weight actually offers a number of opportunities to be flexible and find value and the right diamond for you.

We spoke of legal tolerances in tcw. jewelry. A “tolerance” in the loose diamond trade may well save you a pretty penny. Not all caraters are 1 carat. Most, in fact, are not, but rather .97, or perhaps 1.02. Given that you’re shopping, say, for a 1 carat GSI1, at a retail price range somewhere between $4,300 to $6,000 per carat, there’s a $215 to $300 swing within that range of tolerances, if measured by point size. Or perhaps you’re shopping for a 3/4 carater. The retail range may vary from, say, $2,100 to $3,300, with easily computable savings per point.

There’s a far more important trade secret to capitalize on. There are 100 points in a carat, a unit taking its name from the carob seed once used to weigh gems. Formerly, traders weighing gems that fell between full carobs balanced the weighing end of scales with grains weighing four to a carob. The practice survives, semantically and, for all intents and purposes, in the trade, where a .75 point diamond is a “3 grainer,” and a 1.25 carater a “5 grainer.” Many cutters still cut rough diamonds that result in full, or near-full grains, which are known as “magic sizes.”

Note that price all but doubled from 3/4 to 1 carat. Will an 88 point diamond be roughly half the distance? On average, no. It will be priced more for its variance from the .75 point range than from the full carater’s range, affording you tremendous flexibility for adding value. As with color and clarity, it’s an opportunity found largely with a trusted jeweler. Go to any site offering large numbers of diamonds. You’ll find very few stones falling between magic sizes.

Until you get up to 2 caraters, which, owing to the nature of the rough they’re cut from, will be all over the map. Unless you’re a master amateur gemologist, or born under a very lucky star, however, it would be insanity to purchase such a stone on-line.

CUT: THE PERFORMANCE FACTOR

By now you’re likely wondering, why those huge ranges for identical diamonds? Clearly, they’re not identical. In extreme cases, two GSI1 1 carat diamonds may well seem like entirely different animals. If the cutter was good, his diamond will appear to be 10 percent, even 15 percent bigger, an illusion that will actually grow the longer you look at it. Why?

For the very reason you’re looking at diamonds to begin with. A carater weighs 1/5th of a gram. If it’s a round brilliant, its diameter is roughly that of a cigarette; take the tobacco out and you could fit a dozen or so caraters in. They’re tiny—a fact that will hit like a sledgehammer when you’re off on a second day shopping them. Good diamonds get bizarrely, magically big as you look at them. Why?

To put it ever so fancifully, it’s because they’re alive. When a jeweler, dealer, and, eventually, you, look at a polished diamond the first time, what you’re looking for is life. Not a conceit, by the way, but an actual trade term. Life in a diamond is measured by the way it handles light, and that is strictly a function of the way it’s been cut. Formerly, that was an almost entirely subjective measurement. A number of machines and software programs now calibrate this life with extraordinary accuracy and repeatability.

What’s so endearing about a diamond, and what offers you the greatest flexibility for determining value as you choose your diamond, is that diamond life—more properly known as performance—is still highly subjective. As you might value a person for any number of virtues, diamonds perform and handle light, differently, giving them personalities.

You won’t see it right away, but performance occurs (or fails to) in three ways. Brilliance is the intensity of the light you see coming out of the diamond. Simply ask yourself this question: How bright is that light? Ask it of yourself when you first see a diamond, again as you get to know it, then again after you have seen other similar diamonds.

As you ask it, bear in mind that you’re currently holding a diamond. Probably rigidly, for fear of dropping it. Worn diamonds are almost never stationary. Breathing will cause sufficient movement to make a diamond in a necklace, or stud, perform. As you hold the diamond, move it ever so slightly. Because what you’re looking for is a brilliance that continues to change, the result of what’s now understood as contrast between darker and lighter flashes of light.

Is that really important? It’s crucial as a measure both of whether this diamond was well cut and whether it will continue to have value for you. Some diamonds return a great deal of light—they’ll pop right out the moment you see them—but will lose interest quickly. They have less life, but it may take a while for you to know that of them.

Fire, or dispersion, occurs when white light is “refracted,” in essence “deconstructed” into its component colors, because a skilled cutter arranged some facets he cut into the diamond. Facets act either as portals or mirrors for light (good) or holes for light leakage (bad).

The contrast you looked for to delineate a diamond’s brilliance has two analogues with dispersion. They’re more difficult to see, and require more time with the diamond to appreciate. The first is vividness of the color flash. The second is its sharpness/duration. Both, optically speaking, are a function of the width of that flash. The vividness of a flash can change dramatically with light conditions. Face the diamond to north sunlight for optimal viewing, though to catch full vividness, try to find light that is a tad obscured—say through the leaves of a tree. If the flashes continue to be small (pin-like), it’s because the diamond’s white light return will, in essence, have blinded or dulled you to it.

Scintillation is the diamond’s sparkliness and how much it glitters as you, the light source, and the diamond itself moves or is moved. If a diamond’s scintillation moves you, what you’ll be seeing are sharp white and/or colored flashes alternating with darker ones. Contrast is crucial to scintillation, and only superior cutting achieves it.

As with fire, differing lighting conditions can help you ascertain the longevity of the appeal your diamond’s scintillation will have. Let your head block some, or all, of the overhead light source. Turn your eyes away from the diamond, then look back suddenly, in essence, making the diamond take you by surprise. Turn your back to the light, so that it is illuminated only by the light obscured by your shoulders. Look at it near a window, and outside. Very often, you can appreciate scintillation optimally by even cupping your hand partially, almost fully, over the stone. Sparkles are the last thing you’ll expect to see there, but you often will with a very good diamond.

Which is better: brilliance, fire, or scintillation? Many particularly appreciate brilliance, which, subtly, can make a diamond feel more expensive. Others favor fire, which make diamonds fascinating, as though they are harboring some great secret. Still others find a diamond’s glitter captivating. Trained gemologists, cutters, dealers, jewelers, all trained to appreciate balance between brilliance, dispersion, and scintillation in a well-cut diamond, often privately favor one or the other.

Bear in mind that these optical events and impacts will be subtle. They can, will, and should, however, be the final tools to reach your goal: Of finding what it is that you, truly, value in a diamond, and then finding it in that certain diamond you will spend your life with. Consider it a bit of a Rorschach test, and one that you simply cannot fail.

THE ADDED FACTORS

The bottom line of a diamond purchase will often look a little different than the sticker-price you initially matched to your budget. With jewelry, they can add up quickly. Which “below-the-line” items are of value to you?

Lab reports, sometimes called dossiers, documents, and, most often certs (certificates) contain data ascertained by professionals who examined the diamond in unbiased circumstances at the behest of the cutter, manufacturer, dealer, or jeweler who sent it to that laboratory for grading and testing. Some larger jewelers, acting on their gemological training or in concert with such a lab, are able to create trustworthy reports within their operations.

Much of the trade does not bother with lab reports smaller than a half-carat. As diamonds become more costly, well-cut diamonds as small as .25 carat are getting certified. It is strongly recommended that you do not buy “uncerted” diamonds half a carat and larger.

Reports once pertained all but exclusively to the 4C’s. Most focused heavily on the first three: color, clarity, and carat weight. Changes in the art and technology of cutting and the sciences of gem creation and alteration have changed that. As cutters created modifications of existing cuts, or even their own patented shapes, the industry began to focus heavily on the fourth C, cut, with most labs following suit.

You’ll often see a price premium for certified diamonds with certain grades (different at each lab), industry-wide terms such as ideal, hearts and arrows, brand names, and terms such as signature, private label, or even the jeweler’s private collection, attesting to their superior cut.

Most reports now also indicate whether a diamond has been modified, or created outright, in a lab. Regardless of your budget, for value’s sake, pay very close attention to such aspects of the report, and do exhaustive homework before purchasing such a stone. They may well be beautiful diamonds. As anyone familiar with the trends of technology pricing will understand, however, they may equally well not keep the same (appraisal) value as a natural diamond.

Reports are all but essential for anyone seeking appraisal and insurance for a diamond or diamond jewelry. Some jewelers, particularly if they happen to be certified appraisers, include appraisal in the price. An increasing number of jewelers are also working with insurers and credit agencies, enabling both parties to close a sale, though insurance for gemstones is still largely done through one’s homeowner or renter’s policy. If so, read the fine print; some insurers limit value, or increase deductibles, for jewelry line items. You will almost certainly need both a lab and appraiser’s report for any form of insurance. I would strongly recommend submitting any diamond purchased on-line to an independent appraiser.

A ROSE IS A ROSE?

Partly owing to science, partly to the high cost of diamond, you will or may already have encountered an ever-widening range of alternative diamonds: We’re not discussing CZ, moissanite or any other simulant or similar gemstone here, but true diamond with colors or clarities enhanced in a laboratory, still others created in a lab.

All will be less costly than the card-carrying diamonds they appear (more or less) to be the same as, or have even been measured to have the same characteristics of. Many will come with reports, and while most labs take pains to identify and signify exactly which animal you’re dealing with, not all, however, will be identified as such by their vendors. Many of these diamonds are beautiful and of good value. They simply do and should cost less. It’s crucial you be able to trust your jeweler.

Clarity enhanced diamonds have been on the market since the early 1990s. Most typically, they are diamonds whose “feathers” have been filled with a molten glass, typically resulting in a diamond that will grade a degree higher—from SI2 to SI1, or SI1 to VS2. Call it the gemologist’s botox. Less typical are “laser drilled” diamonds, where darker inclusions were (largely) removed. Both are entirely safe and easily detectable by trained gemologists.

Diamond color can be enhanced, or even changed. “HPHT enhanced” diamonds have been subjected to high-pressure and high-temperature treatments in which they were formed, thus correcting, enhancing, changing them. Originally, most commercial HPHT treatments removed the yellow (or, more typically, brown) tints from white diamonds, to make them more white. Later, HPHT, as well as radiation, was found to make a certain class of diamonds appear more yellow, orange, pink, or blue in appearance.

More recently, HPHT is used simply to create a diamond from scratch, or from a tiny diamond seed, concentrating graphite onto that seed under intense heat and pressure to create a synthetic, lab created or cultured diamond. A very different process, known as CVD, is now creating diamond from seed as well. Both processes have led largely to yellow, orange, pink, blue, and red diamond, with neither succeeding in creating white diamonds at any significant savings. These fancy color newcomers can be beautiful at a fraction of the price. Whether that price will hold as technologies grow is anyone’s guess. The value they may currently represent, therefore, may be temporary.

SHAPING UP

The round brilliant was the ubiquitous 20th century diamond, owing to discoveries and innovations early in the century. With advanced cutting techniques, increasing scarcity of the rough needed to cut rounds, price pressures, and changing fashions, long-neglected other shapes known as fancy cuts are gaining prominence.

While you may be shopping for a round brilliant, let your eye alight on a fancy. Many shapes have tremendous charm and, typically, cost less than rounds of the same weight. The most common, and most likely to have semi-mounts created for them, are the square shapes. Princess and radiants (which are more often slightly rectangular) have “brillianteered” pavilions—that beehiving or cross-hatching you’ll see on rounds—and will behave and can be judged in a roughly similar way.

Emeralds, baguettes, and other “step cuts” do not have brillianteered pavilions, and will perform differently. Particularly with emeralds, look for less scintillation, larger flashes of brilliance and a bit of fire. Their tables are prominent and uncomplicated by extensive pavilion faceting, so you will see body color and clarity more clearly. You’ll see prices moving faster up the clarity and color scales. Emeralds look bigger per carat.

Another group of square fancies have some brillianteering. The asscher has a deeper step-cut pavilion that is divided into substeps of three or four diagonals, and is a very beautiful shape. The cushion cut is fiery and scintillating. Other shapes include ovals and variants thereof, including the marquise, pear, heart, and the less common but exquisite briolette. They’re extremely brilliant diamonds, at times with great fire, though less often with the scintillation of other groups.

FANCY THAT

Past Z on the color grading scale are the rare yellows and, more rare still, orange colored diamonds. Along with the far less costly brown diamond family (known as champagnes, cognacs, chocolates, cinnamons), and the brown’s millionaire fashionista cousin, the pink diamond (which will typically cost two to three times its equivalent in yellow), they are the bulk of the fancy colors you will likely run into, either as centers, side stones, or far more often, as pavé accents in jewelry.

Other colors do exist—blues, violets, purples, chameleons, and, rarest of all, greens and reds—but are of such scarcity their prices may well begin in six figures (per carat). Far more common are the fancy colors whose names are preceded by a color adjective or modifier: orangey yellow or purplish pink. Quaint as they all sound, they’re actually scientifically arrived at, and hugely determinant of price. Be prepared for serious sticker-shock.

Still greater rarity and (cost) in a fancy will be signified when the color names are preceded by the words intense, deep, or vivid. They are the top grades a diamond lab will assign to a fancy’s intensity or saturation of color. Fancies are priced per carat, but are valued principally for their color, where rarity truly lies. Flawlessness is as uncommon in yellow as in white diamond, but it carries little of the white’s premium. Cut, while hugely important to a fancy’s performance, will not (typically) affect price as with white diamonds. Rather, cut in fancies applies far more to the diamond’s shape. Almost all fancy colors are fancy shapes (the most common are radiants, emeralds, pears, cushions, asschers, and ovals), as a high return of brilliance actually lessens how well a fancy color will show its color.

The fancy market is driven by specialists. You will not find a bargain, either on-line or at a brick-and-mortar jeweler. If it looks remotely like a buy, it’s not. It’s cultured (created in a lab), treated, irradiated, or it’s “bluffy,” a diamond that shows a bit like one of the costly colors, but is actually much closer to a cheaper color. You will not see the difference between a yellowish green and a greenish yellow, but their value difference may well be a year’s salary.

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