Diamond Carats

The weight of diamonds, like most other precious gems, is expressed in carats. The word carats may be abbreviated as ct. for all practical purposes. Some times a suffix ‘TW’ is added to indicate that the weight expressed is the cumulative total of all the diamonds used in that particular piece of jewellery. The word carat is derived from the Greek word kerátion which means “fruit of the carob”. This apparent association may be because of the fact that carob seeds were used to make precise measurements during ancient times. But in the present context, one carat has been standardized at 200 milligrams.

You might ask “What’s the big deal with diamonds. Why not use the conventional system of weight measurement?” My response to that can be illustrated with an example. The largest diamond crystal ever found was the Cullinan diamond. It weighed in at an unbelievable 3106 carat! If we do the maths right, it would be exactly 0.6212 kg. That’s the largest diamond ever found. It has been a thousand years since the Cullinan was discovered and yet we haven’t come even close to discovering a diamond that weighs that much. Therefore, if we stuck to the conventional system of weights we would have to resort to fractions and decimals. To avoid this, a new system of weight called carat was chosen. Using this system the weight of the diamonds could be expressed more compactly and conveniently. When it comes to small diamonds, carat becomes ill suited to indicate the diamonds weight. Thus for convenience, each carat is divided into 100 points e.g. a diamond with a physical weight of 50 milligrams will weigh 0.25 carats or 25 points.

Although the carat weight of a diamond is the most common measure of a diamonds worth, it’s not the most precise indicator. The worth of a diamond is affected by many other features like clarity, cut, colour etc. Thus two diamonds having the same carat weight may look totally different! For instance, the diamond having higher packing density will look smaller than the one having lesser packing density. Another apt example would be the cut of the diamond. You see, a diamond having flat cut will look larger than one having a steep cut, despite having the same carat weight! Therefore it can be said, without reasonable doubt, that carat weight is only a raw indicator of the diamond.

So how exactly does carat weight influence value? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Large diamonds are rare and more in demand, so naturally, they are expensive. Consequently a one carat pendant would be more high-priced compared to a pendant made of smaller diamonds having a collective weight of one carat or more. Diamonds which weigh a little less than the nearest full carat are significantly cheaper than those which weigh a little more than the next full carat. If you are looking for a one carat diamond but have a limited budget the most sensible thing to do would be to buy a diamond which weighs just under a carat, say 90 points or so. This way nobody will be able to tell the difference, but you will get away with a big saving!