The 4C’s – Color

For more than six thousand years diamonds have had a place in man’s history. They have been sought after as mineral’s possessing mystical properties, as objects of beauty and as symbols of status and power. However, before De Beer’s creation of the 4c’s (color, cut, clarity, and carat), in 1939, there were no universally accepted standards used to categorize and describe the qualities of diamonds.

Color is an attribute of a diamond which is immediately visible to the naked eye and as such can immediately be compared to other diamonds which are seen as “whiter” or not as white. The color of a diamond is determined by its chemical makeup and impurities inside the stone. There are diamonds of many different colors, from white to black, brown, yellow, pink, orange, red, green, purple, blue and grey. While technically the color white is made through a combination of colors, it is easier in a discussion of diamond ‘whiteness” to think of white as the absence of color. As a diamond has less color in its crystals, it is colorless and appears whiter. When we say that a diamond is colorless or “D” in color, we are saying that this is the whitest a diamond can be. As with any color there are slight variations to that color. A diamond color is no exception and so there are varying color grades of white.

In the 1940’s, the Gemological Institute of America began assigning letters to describe the different levels of whiteness found in a diamond. This diamond color grading chart defines diamond color beginning with the letter “D” and continuing through the letter “ Z”. This is considered the normal color range of all diamonds. Diamonds not in this range due to increased or intense color are considered “fancy colored diamonds” and are graded using many of the standards and terminology used to grade colored stones like ruby, emerald and sapphire. Beginning, however, with the letter “D” and continuing with the letters “E, F, G, H, I and sometimes J, are generally considered white stones. The Gemological Institute of America has defined the level of white attributed to diamonds in each of these color grades. As more color is found in the crystal structure of each diamond, it appears less colorless and thus less white. The difference in these color grades of diamonds can only be seen by comparing the color of one diamond with another. Diamonds are generally graded loose, essentially upside down with the culet or point of the stone facing upwards. Yet, it is difficult to determine the “whiteness” of a diamond color in the abstract. Professional’s in the diamond business, grade diamond color by comparing each stone to a master set of color-coded synthetically created crystals.

In addition, diamond color may only be determined before the stone is placed in a piece of jewelry. Diamonds like prisms will reflect the color of the metal placed around it, and so a diamond will always appear whiter when surrounded by a white metal, like platinum or white gold. So much so that it can actually appear to be one full grade higher on a diamond color chart. As an example a G color stone will appear to be F in color in a platinum or white gold ring.

Ultimately, our perception of the whiteness of a diamond is influenced by the amount of light which passes through the diamond, and how that light is broken up or refracted in the stone and then reflected out of the stone. This refraction and then reflection of light in a diamond is what is responsible for the “fire” or sparkle of a diamond. This leads us to a discussion of another of the 4C’s, the “clarity” of a diamond.

The Nature of Silver

Silver has been mined since the beginning of time. Silver mines in what is now Turkey had large scale silver mining operations as long ago as 2500BC. Silver was used in the production of plates, coins and jewelry in both the ancient Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. Greek and later Spanish silver mines provided more than 1000 onzes of silver per year to fuel the world ‘s uses of silver for the first 1000 years after the birth of Christ. After the discovery of the New World in 1492, silver production grew as the world’s appetite and uses for silver grew. By 1800 more than 1.5 million troy onzes were taken from mines in Mexico with additional amounts being mined in both Peru and Bolivia. In addition through out the 19th and 20th century significant amounts of silver were discovered and mined in both the United States and Canada.

Of the three precious metals platinum, gold and silver, silver is easily the most abundant. With mines producing more than 20 tons of silver a year, it is used in the fabrication and manufacture of everything from coins and jewelry to photography and medicine. Because it is an excellent conductor of electricity, it also has numerous uses in the electronics, nuclear and auto industry. Silver’s overall use in the jewelry industry continues to grow as fashion trends continue to favor a white metal over yellow and as the other two precious metals, platinum and gold, become more expensive.

Silver is truly a white metal and with the advances in tarnish resistant silver alloy, it is easy to maintain. Because it is less expensive and lighter in weight than is either platinum or gold, jewelry fashioned in silver can be made more substantial and durable. Relative to gold it has a lower melting temperature and thus can be combined with yellow gold to create “two tone” or multicolored jewelry. The silver used in jewelry is traditionally a mixture of pure silver or fine silver and copper with silver being 92.5% of the mixture and copper the remaining 7.5%. This combination is called sterling silver.

Sterling silver has come a long way in the manufacture of jewelry. Today, in addition to using only sterling silver in the creation of jewelry, it is also combined with diamonds, many different types of precious (ruby, emerald, sapphire) and semi precious stones to create a line of high fashion jewelry. Silver is featured prominently in the designs of many of the world’s finest designers and its use in high end designer jewelry continues to grow as fine jewelry stores like Tiffany and Cartier expand their use of the metal. Jewelry made from sterling silver is both durable and affordable and can be an attractive alternative to almost any piece of jewelry made from gold or platinum.