Emerald cut cheaper than round?

[Jennifer2828]

I am helping my sister look for an engagement ring and it seems in my searches that emerald cuts seem significantly cheaper than round stones. Can anyone help explain the reason for this? It seems like around the 2 ct mark, good to very good cut stones are much cheaper than rounds of the same cut class, whereas ideal cut emeralds and ideal cut rounds come to about the same price. Thanks!

 

[John P]

The round brilliant is typically considered the standard by which other shapes are measured and may be a bit more expensive per-carat than other traditional shapes when all things are equal. Some professionals have reported that other shapes are selling better these days as a result of this. But diamond is diamond, and manufacturers will do what they can to get the most value from a given piece of rough. In that sense do be aware that "discounts" never happen on-accident.

Check the relative spread (in mm) of diamonds you're comparing. If a 2 carat round spreads 8.20 mm and the 2 carat emerald spreads only 7.60 mm you can expect the round to be more expensive because - face up - you're getting far less diamond in the physical spread of the other shape, even if weight is the same. Cut-quality also plays a role. Since rounds optimize light return better (in general) an 8.00 mm round can LOOK larger than a 8.00 mm emerald due to the cutting angles used to acquire a top cut grade in a round.

Also understand that there is NO cut-quality standard typically enforced for emeralds, so who knows what "Ideal, EX, or VG" even mean when you're considering what category the seller has decided to place it in. This is a good question to ask and should be key to making comparisons: Who assigned the cut-grade and what were the criteria used?

 

[Gypsy]

What John said. Also, Emerald show inclusions easier than rounds. So you need to stick to VS stones and higher color. With a round brilliant you can go down to SI1 and I color pretty easily.

 

[denverappraiser]

I’ll add one more reason in addition to whats mentioned above.

One of the most common diamond crystal shapes is an octahedron. That’s the shape of 2 pyramids base to base. All a cutter can do with a rough stone is remove material and cutting that to an emerald cut (or 2) loses less material than cutting it to a round. A particular piece of rough may produce a 2 carat emerald but only a 1.5ct round.

 

[Jennifer2828]

Thank you all for the information. This is very helpful!