Carat is often confused with size even
though it is actually a measure of
weight. Sometimes, you might think
a larger diamond appears more brilliant
than a smaller one. This is
because light must travel greater
distance through a larger diamond.
The result is a prism effect that your
eye registers as more brilliance and
fire.One carat is equivalent to 200
milligrams. One carat can also be
divided into 100 "points". A
0.75cts diamond is the same as a 75
points or a ¾-carat diamond.
Larger diamonds are found relatively
infrequently in nature and are therefore
more valuable.
A 1-carat diamond costs exactly twice
the price of a half-carat diamond,
right? Wrong. Since larger
diamonds are found less frequently in
nature, which places them at the rarest
level, a 1 carat diamond will cost much
more than twice as much as a
½-carat
diamond (assuming color, clarity and cut
remain constant).
Cut and mounting can make a diamond
appear larger (or smaller) than its
actual weight. So talk to us about
finding the right diamond and setting to
optimize the beauty of your stone.
The term carat is a derivative of the
word carob. Carob seeds are
surprisingly similar in weight to one
another; thus they were used in ancient
civilizations as a reference tool to
measure the weight of a diamond.
Diamonds were traditionally weighed
against these seeds until the system was
standardized and one carat was fixed at
0.2 grams (one fifth of a gram).
Many people confuse carat and karat.
Carat refers to the weight of a diamond
while karat refers to the purity of gold
(not the weight). You might see a
1-carat diamond set in 18K gold, for
example.
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