Diamonds are ideally meant to be colorless solids but due to certain reasons, one of which is the conditions under which they were formed, colors tend to form in diamonds. This is definitely not ideal, diamond colors therefore becomes one of the parameters for evaluating and valuing a diamond. The presence and amount of color in a diamond determines its placement on the diamond color scale. This in turn determines the diamond’s value on the diamond market.
Diamond Color Scale
The most widely accepted color scale used to grade diamonds makes use of the Latin alphabets from D-Z. The best color grade is the D grade (colorless diamonds), while the worst is the Z grade. Within this D-Z color grade, there is a sub-classification into 5 different groups; colorless diamonds, near colorless diamonds, faint color diamonds, light color diamonds and very light color diamonds.
Group D-F (Colorless diamonds): They are very rare in nature but they are known to not have any colors in them. This group of diamonds is very expensive because of their colorlessness, scarcity and the high demand for them. They usually fit in well with all kinds of setting.
Group G-J (Near colorless diamonds): These diamonds look very much colorless diamonds but they have color in them (howbeit very little), so they can’t be considered as colorless diamonds. This group is quite the intermediate group with G&H tending towards colorless diamonds but I&J tends towards faint color diamonds. G&H offer the best value for money. They look like colorless diamonds but are very much cheaper. As much as possible, you should stay away from the J grade.
Group K-M (faint color diamond): This group of diamond has a noticeable yellow tint on them. The yellow coloration is faint but it is still noticeable and this devalues the diamond. This makes them very cheap but even at that, they’re not readily available because of the little or no demand for them.
Group N-R (very light color diamonds): They are referred to as top light brown. They have a brown or yellow tint which is obvious to the naked eye. They are extremely cheap and there is little or no demand for them.
Group S-Z (light color diamonds): They have a strong yellow coloration but are in more demand than the faint color and very light color diamonds. This is because many take them for yellow fancy stone even though they are not.
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