Although a diamond is most often purchased for sentimental reasons; it is also an investment. Intelligently selected and properly priced, a diamond will maintain its value, and, unlike stocks and bonds, it may be enjoyed constantly ... not just when you open your vault. Whether the diamond is for an engagement ring, a wedding or anniversary band or whatever, it is a thing of beauty that will give you satisfaction every day of your life. It is an opportunity to own a masterpiece. Because a diamond is usually an infrequent purchase, most people buy theirs without adequate knowledge. We can't make you an instant diamond expert, but we've prepared this guide to help you make your selection wisely.

Any reputable jeweler will be happy to answer your questions. The most serious misconception most people have is an over-emphasis on how big it is. There are a number of factors that affect cost: carat weight (size), color, clarity and cutting usually called the 4 C's. A diamond is almost pure carbon. So is soot from a smokey candle. The vast difference between the two begins to suggest the differences possible between diamonds. No two are exactly alike.

Maybe the most important advice we can offer is this... because no two diamonds are alike and because evaluating the quality of a diamond requires special training, if you don't know diamonds, know your jeweler. When buying a diamond, think of it as an opportunity to own nature's most precious gift. OWN A MASTERPIECE.

Almost every day you can see diamonds advertised at ridiculously low prices. Unless you take into consideration not only the size (expressed as "carat weight"), but also the other factors that affect value, that advertised price may be too high for the quality offered. What is the color, clarity and cutting like? This is not to say that size does not affect price. It does. Most rough diamonds mined are small. Larger sizes are much more rare and because they are, they command a higher price. A one carat diamond costs much more than two 1/2 carat stones of the same quality. Large or small, the purpose of a diamond is to be beautiful. If it is not beautiful,. it has lost its reason for being. Select a quality diamond and OWN A MASTERPIECE.

A carat (one fifth of a gram) is divided into 100 "points." A half carat stone is a .50 or fifty point stone. Higher carat weight doesn't always mean a stone of larger size as viewed from the top.

Cutting is where this masterpiece becomes a mirror of light instead of a fascinating pebble. For millenniums, the fiery beauty of a diamond was one of nature's best kept secrets. Cutting the hardest substance found in nature is no small task. That is behind us. Diamonds of today can be cut to known angles and ideal proportions that gather and emit the maximum brilliance and dispersion. Although this is known, diamonds are not always cut to these perfect proportions. This happens for many reasons. Often it is because of the undue emphasis placed on carat weight. One cutter who cuts with a spread "table" and thick "girdle" can produce a 1 carat stone (100 points) from the same rough from which another cutter will get an 80 point stone. The customer, who owns the poorly cut lifeless one carat stone, can proudly point to its size of 1 carat. The more knowledgeable customer may smile with inner satisfaction knowing that the 80 point stone, slightly smaller and beautifully cut, is more valuable and has more brilliance and refraction. The latter is truly a masterpiece.

Most diamonds found are dark brown or yellow and are used in industry. As they become more nearly colorless, as clear as a drop of pure spring water, the more rare and desirable they become and the more valuable and costly. Generally speaking, no color is the finest color. There are a few exceptions: red bluish tints, bright yellow, dark blue, pink, green and more, but these are extremely rare. In any case, to accurately evaluate color, diamonds must be compared against known standards in north daylight. The thing you should remember about color is that the less brownish yellow there is, the more costly the stone. Even with an untrained eye, you can see even subtle differences in color.

There is virtually no such thing as a "perfect" diamond. Because a diamond is formed by nature, imperfections (or inclusions) are inevitable. These are, in a sense, fingerprints which identify diamonds. The term flawless is applied to diamonds which have no visible inclusions when examined by the trained eye using 10 times magnification and good lighting. Most inclusions, however, are not apparent to the naked eye. Many beautiful stones are not flawless, but nevertheless are of high quality and value because of their color, cutting and size. For example, a near colorless diamond with minor inclusions may be worth far more than a flawless stone of poor color. Why? You can see the color differences with the naked eye. You can't see the microscopic specks, lines or bubbles we call inclusions without magnification. If you can see them, that's another matter. When you consider what a diamond has been through, it has the right to have a few inclusions. In all probability, 1000 million years ago it was 150 miles deep in the earth at a temperature of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit under a pressure of 1,000,000 pounds per square inch. That's what it took to make the miracle happen. This truly is a masterpiece of nature.

The brilliance and fire of a diamond comes from precise cutting... adherence to known angles of refraction. The shape of a diamond as viewed from the top is a matter of individual taste. The round brilliant is the most popular, but there is a wide variety of others that range from the traditional marquise, pear, emerald, oval, heart shaped to even more fanciful and creative shapes.

Diamonds are not only beautiful, they are rare. Only a relative few diamonds survive the hazardous journey from the depths of the earth to reach the surface. To produce a one carat polished diamond of gem quality, approximately 250 tons of ore must be mined from the average Kimberlite pipe. Most diamonds are not gem quality and even fewer are large enough to be cut into diamonds larger than the head of a match.

A beautifully designed and finished mounting can greatly enhance the beauty of the stone just as a poor mounting can diminish it ... even cause you to lose it. Modern mountings allow as much area of the diamond as possible to be exposed to the light. Thus most diamonds of today are set in open 4 or 6 prong mountings as high above the band as practical. We greatly enjoy seeing the reaction of customers who see a diamond that has been "smothered" by a dowdy old mounting, re-born. Mountings do wear out in time and styles change, but your diamond will maintain its original beauty and quality for a lifetime and beyond. One of life's most enduring possessions, a diamond keeps giving pleasure and pride of ownership every day.