April's Birthstone, Diamond

Lucky April! Their birthstone is the diamond. And who doesn't like a beautiful, sparkling, brilliant diamond? I know I certainly do.

Diamonds were originally discovered in India about 2500 years ago. The diamond derives its name from the Greek, "adamas," meaning "unconquerable the eternity of love." It is the hardest and purest gemstone known to man. Most diamonds known to the average person are clear and colorless, but there are other varieties and colors such as brown, black, gray, yellow, red, green, pink and blue. Their colors are determined by the impurities found in the stone.

The value of a colorless diamond is decided by the 4 Cs, cut, color, clarity and carat.

Cut will decide the brilliance of the diamond. During the process of cutting the diamond, the jeweler is making every effort to maximize the amount light the stone will reflect back to the viewer. Most diamonds have 58 carefully cut flat surfaces, called facets. the placement of the facets will determine the stones fire, brilliance and beauty.




A diamond is more valuable when it is colorless. Depending on the quality of the diamond, all the colors of the rainbow will be reflected back to the viewer. Diamonds are graded in color on a scale from totally colorless, near colorless, faint yellow, very light yellow to light yellow. Experts grade a diamond by comparing it to a master diamond of known color.

Clarity depends on the number of inclusions within the stone. The smaller the amount, the clearer, brighter and more costly a diamond is. Flawless diamonds are very rare, and therefore, very costly.

Diamonds are measured in carat weight. One carat is divided into 100 points, and therefore, a quarter carat diamond has 25 points, and so on. The size of a diamond is significant only when the other qualities are considered. So you can have a large diamond that is expensive or inexpensive depending on also the cut, color and clarity.