Diamond Weight or Carat
from
Diamond Experts

The fourth of the four c's is Carat or Weight. This obviously affects price of the diamond. Most people know that the price of diamonds goes up as the Carat goes up and as the quality goes up. What is not usually realized is that the price per carat increases! Ask Diamond Experts, an experienced dealer in wholesale diamonds, which stone will be the best choice for your budget.

In practice this favors those who want a large show of diamonds rather than a large single diamond in an engagement ring or other piece of jewelry. For example, four diamonds each weighing a quarter of a carat each will cost considerably less than 1 diamond weighing 1 carat. Even if the four smaller diamonds were of exactly the same quality as the larger 1-carat diamond, they would still be priced much lower because the price per carat of quarter carat diamond is much lower than the price of a 1-carat diamond.

It also explains why diamonds are good supporting stones for rings where the main gem is a colored stone. The price of the colored stone will probably be much the same per carat within fairly wide limits of weight, so a large one will not be too expensive. A number of small diamonds around it will give a good show of diamonds at a relatively low price.

Another reason why diamonds with more carats catch the higher price is because large stones of many carats have a great intrinsic beauty if effectively cut, and are being found much less frequently. There is no doubt that the stones coming from most of the world's diamond mines are smaller and that jewelry designers and jewelry manufacturers will have to use smaller stones increasingly as the years go by.