Color: At what point can you tell a difference?

........... Karl has joined the diamond trade and is now posting as Karl_K

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Ana "The greatest experts are only as good as the sum total of what they have seen." [Souren Melikian]

I would run a search on this very same question using the Search tool up above, it is a question that has been discussed MANY times, with many of us saying what we thought previously...It's such a prevalent question that I can't even muster the long comment I probably had last time someone asked it and the time before that...

But it really depends on your eyes and how you perceive color. I had a G and then an H and now a J and I loved them all and the J does show a tiny bit of warmth from side view but face down it's as white as my old stones, my husband has an E ACA H&A and he swears it looks the same as his...but it doesn't. As others have said before, color grades are there for a reason, but how your eyes perceive color is very different from someone else.

Good luck!

________________________________

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

-Albert Einstein

it is always harder to find a "mind clean" stone than a eye clean stone.

The difference between descending color grades is subtle and can be influenced by things like fluorescence, and the quality of the diamond’s cut - especially in rounds.  A well-cut near-colorless round can look as good or better than colorless rounds of average cut.  Further, with a well-cut round you can even go to an I or a J before noticing a huge difference within those near-colorless grades (GHIJ).

Price differences are not as subtle.  Prices jump when you cross the line from near-colorless to colorless.  The reason for the price jump is not because there's necessarily a noticeable difference.  It is because colorless diamonds are considered more rare, so you're paying for the rarity, not necessarily for a much "better" looking diamond.

Note that some labs grade softer than others.  A diamond given an F by a soft lab might actually be a G or an H if graded by a strong lab like the AGS or GIA.  Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.  The visual difference between two or three colors graded by the same lab, with the same cut quality is not noticeable to most people.  People who are color sensitive may pick up the difference, but it's slight.  Also, if (for example) an H is alone on your finger, NOT mounted next to (for example) an E it may not look any different to anyone unless you were to set the two right next to each other.

To some people one or two grades matters a lot.  To others, it matters not at all.  Color and clarity tolerances are very personal, subjective matters - with no wrong decisions.

John

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John Pollard

Whiteflash Director of Education 2004-2007

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