Setting the record straight on Diamond gradesDiamond GradesWhen diamonds became a commercial commodity, diamond grades had to be created due to the various parameters involved in diamonds specifically diamond color & clarity. In 1953 Richard Liddicoat who was then the Chairman of the Gemological Institute of America unveiled the GIA’s D-Z system of color grading….with D being the “whitest” and Z being the “lowest color”. “D” colored diamonds have a unique icy (read ice cube) look to them. High color diamonds is a term that is sometimes used to describe diamonds which tend to be between D-J while those below are termed as “Low color”. The system which starts with the letter D was decided upon due to the commercial abuse of the then existing system which used terms like “river”, “top Wesselton” & “top silver cape”. Retailers began to lure & confuse customers with promises like extra, extra white stones.
Initially, the new system was only used in the GIA classroom but many other students began to look to the GIA to verify their own grading & eventually turned to them to grade their diamonds for them. After having a decade of experience in commercial diamond grading, the GIA improved their equipment & viewing environment in the 1960s; this was in order to obtain more consistent results. The Clarity was also agreed upon within the industry and it has remained more or less constant. See Chart below 
The GIA also changes its color diamond grading. Light-brown diamonds had for decades been classed at the high end of the color scale & so were easy to be integrated into the D-Z system as opposed to yellow stones which were at the bottom of the scale. The Argyle mine in Australia began to produce a lot of brown stones in the mid 1980s & so light-brown began to cover the full range of the scale. The GIA developed a set of brown master stones for use internally (master stones are Ideal cut diamonds that are used to compare other diamonds against). All brown diamond grades below “J” are noted with the letter grade & a color description. Diamond Certificate Need confirmation on your diamond ring? Ask for a diamond certificate just to make sure...... Diamond Mining Process It starts with the diamond mining process...Carbon transformed in to diamonds. All about the diamond mining process Diamond Cutting The Origins of Cutting Diamonds Diamond Grading Should you know about diamond grading ? Yes !! Find out why and more.... Diamond Carat Weight of the diamond....1 gram equals 5 carats!! Trillion Diamond Rings Triangular cut diamonds that will leave you itching to own one... Diamond Grades to Diamond Rings Info
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