A recent survey by De Beers found that the diamond is catching up with Indian buyers. And that Delhi is the biggest diamond market in the country. But despite all this, many Indian buyers, who have till now been enamoured by gold jewellery, may not be aware of the basics of buying a diamond. It's for such people that De Beers has written its small litmus test, which involves the four Cs: cut, colour, clarity and carat weight.The way a diamond is cut and polished, for instance, indicates how valuable it is. Says the De Beers kit: ``It is the precision and delicacy of the cut that dictates the maximum amount of light the diamond will refract and reflect. The better it has been cut, the greater will be its brilliance, sparkle and fire.'' For beginners, the principal diamond shapes are brilliant, marquise, oval, pear, heart, emerald and square.
Colour is another significant factor in choosing a diamond. Even though most diamonds are colourless, there could be variations in shades. But the closer a diamond isto having no colour, the more valuable it becomes, according to De Beers. The De Beers kit also explains why the colour varies. ``In the chaos of extreme temperature and pressure that first created diamond, traces of elements such as nitrogen and baron could have been incorporated into the diamond's atomic structure.'' It is these traces that give a diamond its colour or lack of it.
The next test is that of clarity. The clarity of a diamond may decrease due to the traces of other minerals trapped in it during the crystallisation process. The fewer the `inclusions' (trapped minerals), the greater the light it reflects, and therefore, the rarer the grading the diamond gets.
The final check on a diamond is its carat weight. Of all the four characteristics, this is the easiest to measure. According to De Beers, the carat is a unit of weight, which is derived from the carob seed. But in today's terms, the carat is a standard metric weight of 0.2 gm. It is easy to weigh an unmounted diamond, but once it's in asetting, it is only possible to estimate its weight by using special instruments and formulae. And the last word from De Beers: Carat weight has no bearing on a diamond's cut, colour or clarity.
But for most of us, the only assurance is the guarantee card and the manufacturing batch number on the product we buy. As Akshay Shankar, director marketing, Naqsh diamond boutique, puts it: ``It's the sheer lure of the diamond that pulls a buyer.'' Meaning, the diamond is hardly an investment yet.
-- NM
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.