When shopping for a diamond, you’ve no doubt heard references to the 4 C’s of diamonds. Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight will all play a factor in the price of a diamond. Diamond carat weight is one of those popular “c’s” to consider when evaluating a diamond, and it’s a term used to describe the mass weight of a diamond. One carat is defined as 200 milligrams, or .2 grams. A point system is commonly used for diamonds less than one carat. One point is equal to one one-hundredth of a carat (0.01 carat, or 2 mg).

 

It’s important to recognize that two stones may have the exact same carat weight, meaning they have the same weight measurement, and yet they are completely different in size and appearance. This is because different kinds of stones have different stone densities. The denser a stone is, the more weight they have, and sometimes a smaller stone will actually weigh more than a larger stone because of density.

 

Diamonds are described two different ways in regards to the diamond carat. An abbreviation of “ct” is used to describe the weight of a single diamond stone while an abbreviation of “ct tw” is used when describing the total weight of an entire piece of jewelry- when it has more than one stone in the setting.

 

 

When selecting your diamond, you can choose between single, solitaire settings, and a setting that has multiple, smaller stones to make up your piece of jewelry. The value of a single diamond carat will actually be more than if your piece of jewelry that has two diamonds that add up to one carat or greater. Larger sized diamonds are more rarely found when mining diamonds, making them more valuable and expensive than purchasing the same amount of diamond carats in smaller stones.

 

 

So how do you determine what size diamond to buy? Do you want a diamond carat of 1, or 2, or do you want multiple smaller stones? The answer to this will depend on your budget, as well as the person who will be wearing the jewelry.

 

The actual diamond measurement is probably not as much concern as the appearance, shape, and setting of the jewelry. Particularly because a 1 carat diamond will not look half the size of a 2 diamond carat, it’s far more important to select a piece of jewelry that is pleasing to look at than it is to buy one with the most carats you can afford.

 

Determine how much money you have to spend, and then you are ready to check out the other “c’s” that will affect your price of the diamond.