When buying diamonds, as with any major purchase, the more you know, the better you can protect yourself from misrepresentation and fraud. With that in mind, Mark's Jewelers is providing you with everything you need to know about buying diamonds.

There are four essential aspects of a diamond that determine its beauty, quality, and value. These aspects are known as The Four Cs. Traditionally, the four Cs are listed in the following order of importance to the beauty of the stone:

In the diamond trade, the cutting and proportioning of a diamond (referred to as the "make") are of critical importance. The make of a diamond has an enormous influence on the beauty of the stone. Proper cutting and proportioning releases the fire--the intensity and diversity of the rainbow of colors seen--and brilliance (sparkle) that is locked in the rough stone.

While there are standard grades for diamond color and clarity, there are few quality standards and criteria governing cut. As a result, diamonds are sometimes purposely cut to a shallow depth, making them appear larger in diameter than a well-cut stone of the same weight. The result is a "big look" from these so-called "spread stones", but the diamond appears lifeless. Some sellers mask this by using special high intensity lights to make the diamond seem more lively than it really is. Because of this, you should always check to see how a diamond looks in natural light. A well-cut stone will shine and sparkle even if the lighting conditions are poor.

Ask your jeweler to explain the intricacies of proper cutting to you. A good jeweler should be able to show you the differences between well-cut and poorly cut stones.

Color is one of the first things people notice when judging a diamond. Stones that are closer to "white" (that is, clear or colorless) are considered better. However, very, very few diamonds are absolutely colorless and those that are rate a D grade on the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) scale. D is the best color grade there is, although E and F grades are also considered extremely fine and are also called colorless. No other color may be called colorless by the Federal Trade Commission rules and regulations. There are no A, B, or C color grades.

The GIA scale runs all the way to Z, with increasing amounts of yellow and brown associated with each letter. There are several other color grading systems in use, but the GIA is by far the most used and most informative. Ask your local jeweler to show you his master color grading set so that you can see for yourself the differences and make a more educated purchase.

Diamonds, although rare to begin with, are even more rare if they have strong shades of blue (like the Hope Diamond), or red, green, bright yellow, and so on. These diamonds are known as "fancies" in the trade and there is no comparable letter scale to grade them.

As a product of nature, very few diamonds are totally flawless. Nearly all diamonds contain imperfections, such as tiny black or white specks, minute cracks, grain lines, and so forth. These imperfections are called:

A clarity grade is a rating of the number, size, severity, and type of inclusions that reflect the overall fire and brilliance a diamond has when all other aspects are equal. The fewer and smaller number of imperfections a diamond has, the more fire and brilliance it has.

As with the color scale, there are also many different grading systems in use for clarity. The most commonly used clarity scale is the GIA scale.

The GIA clarity scale is as follows:

Most diamond consumers avoid the imperfect grades--especially I2 or I3--unless there are compensating factors, such as exceptional color or carat weight.

The easiest aspect of a diamond to understand is its carat weight. Note that it is a weight, not a size, which is a common misconception. A carat (abbreviated ct.) weighs one-fifth of a gram, or 200 milligrams. There are 100 points to a carat. Therefore, a half carat diamond might also be referred to as a 50 point stone.

Because people commonly associate a carat weight with a certain size of diamond, they expect a one carat diamond to look a certain way. To some extent this is true; however, there are other factors that affect how big a diamond looks, most notably the cut.

As can be expected, carat weight affects price; however, this occurs in a nonlinear way. That is, a diamond twice as big costs much more than twice as much. Larger diamonds are rarer and, therefore, command a higher overall price per carat.

When purchasing a diamond, you should always get a plot of the stone and a second appraisal from an independent certified appraiser. The diamond plot is a computer-generated diagram showing the facets of the diamond and the location and severity of any flaws. The diamond certificate will show the plot and should include a detailed description of the diamond’s color, dimensions, exact weight, and clarity grade. An independent certified appraiser is someone with no connection (business-wise or proximity-wise) with the seller.

There are a number of techniques used to improve the clarity of diamonds that either remove or hide imperfections. Note that there is a difference in price between untreated diamonds and enhanced diamonds and you should expect the price of an enhanced diamond to be from 25% to 50% less than an untreated diamond. Two very common enhancement techniques are:

Many diamonds come from the earth with tiny black carbon specks inside them; these are inclusions. Even if the inclusions are hard to see, they tend to scatter light and reduce the brilliance of the diamond.

About 25 years ago, high powered laser beams were first used to burn out these impurities.

To reach the inclusion, a laser drill is used to create a tiny hole reaching deep inside the diamond. Often the laser’s heat vaporizes the speck. If not, acid is poured into the hole, usually dissolving the spot or bleaching it to a less noticeable white color. This process is irreversible and because it has become an industry-standard procedure, it is not usually disclosed by diamond sellers.

Laser drilled holes are so small in diameter, it is very difficult to see that the diamond has been drilled. However, looking at the side of the stone in very bright light may show some thin "threads."

Diamond grading reports will usually indicate if the stone has been laser drilled.

The Federal Trade Commission has recently revised the Trade Practice Guides for the jewelry industry, and surprisingly, has omitted laser drilling from its list of diamond treatments that should be disclosed to the public.

Normally, the FTC requires disclosure if the treatment:

Sometimes, a chemical substance is used to fill small cracks in a diamond. The effect of this treatment can be very dramatic, turning a very "ugly" diamond into one that is remarkably brilliant.

However, all other things being equal, a treated, clarity-enhanced diamond is worth less than one that is naturally beautiful. There is nothing inherently wrong with gem enhancement, as long as you know what was done to the stone, and you do not pay the same price as you would for a stone that did not need enhancement.

Because the dispersion index of filler material is different from that of a diamond, you can usually detect a stone that has been fracture filled. The material used for fracture filling has a reflective value close to the diamond's, but different enough that you can detect the filler's presence by rotating the diamond under a bright light. At certain angles, the filler creates a flash effect.

Two companies in the United States supply most of the fracture-filled diamonds sold: Goldman-Oved Diamond Corporation and Yehuda Diamond Company. Fortunately, these are reputable companies that are working to ensure that their products are not misrepresented to consumers.

However, there are reports of hundreds of thousands of fracture-filled diamonds (especially small ones) being surreptitiously released into the jewelry distribution channel. You must be extra-vigilant in inspecting the stone when the true source of the diamond being shown to you is unknown. This is even more important for fractional-carat stones.

There are various chemical coatings that can be used on a diamond to temporarily enhance its color.

Radiation treatments can be applied to off-colored diamonds, turning low-value brownish yellow stones into expensive fancy colored diamonds (pinks, greens, blues, and so forth.). This is not fraud as long as it is disclosed. However, this treatment is difficult to detect, except by a gem lab, and often, the diamonds are misrepresented as natural.

At Mark’s Jewelers, our GIA Graduate Gemologists double check every diamond before it is shown to you or placed in our showcases. You can buy from us with confidence.

Unless you are a diamond expert, you can never be certain about the identification or quality of a stone. To avoid being ripped off when you buy diamonds, be sure to find a jeweler with whom you feel comfortable. When choosing a jeweler, you want someone who will answer all of your questions no matter how trivial and who will not pressure you into making a decision until you are sure it is the right one for you. Your trust in your jeweler should be the same as that for your doctor or lawyer.

One clue to whether a jeweler is using fraudulent means when selling diamonds is a price that is too good to be true. The actual value of a real diamond is something that can be determined rather precisely. Most legitimate sellers seek only a nominal profit on the sale and are not usually inclined to sell a diamond for less than they could buy it for.

Although there’s nothing wrong with covering a flaw by proper placement under a prong or bezel or some other setting, doing so for the purpose of misrepresenting the quality of a stone is not acceptable. A good jeweler will discuss this with you.

When a diamond is not accompanied by a grading report, some unscrupulous sellers may represent the stone in an overly optimistic fashion with regard to color and clarity grades, particularly to unsuspecting, uneducated customers.

Some less than honest sellers will even change the information on the grading certificate to make the diamond appear more valuable than it really is, and counterfeit certificates have been used to scam customers.

Most people know that a diamond started life as a lump of carbon (like a charcoal briquette) and was subjected to intense heat and pressure under the earth to transform it into the hardest and most desirable material known to man.

As you might expect, there has been a lot of interest in creating artificial diamonds in a laboratory -- a form of modern-day alchemy, but with a better outcome.

Industrial-quality diamonds have been available for decades and are used in grinding wheels, drill bits, and so on. Industrial diamonds are small, and their appearance is unimportant. Most artificial diamonds are used for industrial purposes.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, numerous crystal-growing labs sprang up in Russia and are now producing created diamonds in good qualities and increasing sizes.

Most created diamonds are less than one carat in the rough. Because 30% to 70% of the rough material is removed during cutting, the majority of created diamonds end up as fractional carat faceted stones.

However, the diamond farmers have recently started producing rough stones in 3-carat sizes, and we expect to see full-carat (and larger) cut diamonds on the market soon.

Nearly all created diamonds are an intense yellow-orange "fancy" color, due to nitrogen introduced during processing. These stones are very pretty, but the market for near colorless diamonds is much larger than for the fancies.

The crystal growers are working on this problem, and we can expect to see I color grades and better (all the way to D and E) in the near future.

Clarity can be very good in synthetics, as high as GIA VS₁.

While a synthetic diamond grown in a lab is an actual diamond, a simulant is a pretender--another diamond-like stone that is substituted for the real thing. The price of a diamond simulant is fractional compared to the price of real diamonds. Two common simulants are cubic zirconia and moissanite.

When cubic zirconia, or CZs, first became commercially available many years ago, they easily masqueraded as diamonds. This is no longer true and many people can quickly tell the difference between a CZ and a real diamond at arm’s length. Nonetheless, there are some good fakes out there, and you need to be careful if dealing with a seller you do not know well.

One sure way to detect if a stone is cubic zirconia is to try to see if it can be scratched. CZs are easily scratched if scraped on concrete or other rough surfaces, and they can also be chipped and scratched by knives or even finger nails. A real diamond will scratch glass, and can only be scratched by other diamonds or diamond saws. A less easy way to tell if a stone is a CZ is to weigh it. CZs of comparable sizes to known carat weight diamonds tend to weigh twice as much.

Moissanite is another diamond simulant that was very recently introduced to the marketplace. Moissanite is an even better simulant than CZ with physical and optical properties that are much closer to a real diamonds. Not all gem lab equipment is capable of detecting moissanite, although C3, moissanite's manufacturer is doing a brisk business selling their $500 detector to pawn shops and jewelry merchants who buy diamonds from unknown sources. Without this special equipment, the only way you might detect a moissanite from a real diamond is on very close visual inspection. Moissanite has greater refractive properties than diamonds and under bright light the stones appear to have twice as many internal facets, which make the stone appear almost blurred. This is a visual effect that you would not see with a diamond

Opportunities for fraudulent misrepresentation will, no doubt, abound with this new material.

Colored gems can come in a variety of forms:

A natural gem is one that has had no enhancements done to it, except cutting and polishing. There are a huge array of natural gems available for mounting, including emeralds, rubies, sapphires, tanzanite, amethysts, garnets, aquamarines, topaz, peridot, and tourmaline just to name a few. Each of these are formed through geologic phenomenon and their properties are based on the minerals, heat and/or compression that causes their formation in the earth. Like diamonds, these stones are also priced according to their weight, color, and clarity with larger stones usually being the most sought after.

While we know many gems by their most common colors, some have varied hues and appear completely different from the norm. Among these are white sapphires, green amethysts, and a veritable rainbow of shades of tourmaline from deep green to pale pink. Some of these variations are quite sought after for their rarity and they are often priced accordingly.

A treated gem is one that has been formed in the earth by natural geologic processes, but has been enhanced by man-made means.

Two commonly practiced colored gem treatments are the oiling of emeralds and the cooking of sapphires and rubies.

Nearly all natural emeralds have extensive internal and external flaws. The appearance of these stones can be markedly enhanced by placement in a vacuum chamber in combination with immersion in cedarwood oil. When the vacuum is removed, the oil is pulled into the minute spaces between fracture planes, making them less visually apparent.

This treatment can produce a remarkable change in the appearance of an emerald, greatly enhancing the beauty and clarity of the stone. However, over time, cedarwood oil can leak out of the stone. It may be necessary to re-treat the emerald every few years.

Sapphires and rubies are often subjected to high heat in a gem furnace to improve their transparency and color. A well-known, yet unproven, side effect of this process is diminished durability of the gems.

Fracture filling of emeralds (as opposed to the industry standard practice of oiling) and glass-filling of rubies is a controversial, yet also common, practice. A tiny hole is drilled into the stone. Later a liquid chemical is injected into the fracture. This chemical then solidifies and gives the stone a fracture free appearance.

In recent years, several different filling materials have come to market. The most famous is Opticon, which is a liquid chemical that solidifies and takes on the stones natural color hues after injection into the stone.

Whenever you purchase a gemstone, you have the right to know its origin and if it has been treated in any way. You should be careful when buying expensive, high quality emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, which can sometimes cost almost as much as diamonds. A lawsuit concerning a treated emerald was prominently featured recently on the NBC program Dateline. The case centered on whether treatment was disclosed to the buyer before paying $14,500.00 for an emerald and diamond ring. Allegedly, Opticon was used to fill a large fracture in the emerald. Part of the argument involved was whether that filler was in the stone when the buyer initially took possession of the ring or was added later on by another jeweler.

In this case, the buyer won a large settlement award as the outcome. However, you may not be as lucky and your best recourse is to know what you are buying beforehand and recognize an inferior or treated stone when you see one.

Synthetic, or created, gemstones are grown in a laboratory instead of being formed in the ground by nature. They are physically and chemically identical to natural-grown gems, but cost much less to produce and to buy.

Just like natural gems, synthetics vary tremendously in quality. Using low-quality processes, synthetic emeralds and rubies can be created for less than a dollar a carat. High-quality, or luxury, synthetics can cost a hundred times more to create and sell for several hundred dollars a carat at retail.

The choice to buy a natural or synthetic stone is a difficult one. To some people, nothing can replace the magic of owning a beautiful and unique product of nature. For other people, what they see is most important and, thanks to high-quality suppliers like Chatham Created Gems and J.O. Crystal, anyone can own a museum quality gemstone at an affordable price.

With a little background knowledge about synthetics, you will understand what you are buying. If the salesperson in the jewelry store is unable to answer your questions, or quickly find someone who can, then you are in the wrong place to buy gemstones.

Many people believe a created gem is as real as one taken from the earth, and consider it superior to a natural stone that has been treated and enhanced by a variety of questionable methods. Still, quality of synthetic gems is a major problem, particularly for lower-priced merchandise.

There are many different production methods used to create synthetic gems, but they all fall under two major types:

Two common melt-growth methods are Verneuil flame fusion (or flame fusion) and Czochralski pulled-growth.

Flame fusion was the first technology used for growing gemstones in a laboratory and is still very widely used to create rubies, sapphires, and spinel. This method is inexpensive, but yields low quality gems, which are often used in class rings and cheap jewelry found in discount stores. It is relatively easy for any competent jeweler to detect synthetics created by flame fusion methods because the dripped molten material forms growth striae (thin, narrow grooves) as it hardens.

Czochralski pulled-growth is also commonly used to create rubies, sapphires, and spinel. This is a more complex and costly method, and creates better gems than flame fusion.

Both flame fusion and pulled growth yield gems of questionable quality. Because these methods use very high temperatures, it is difficult for manufacturers to achieve uniform color, particularly in rubies and blue sapphires. The mechanical action of melting and reforming crystals introduces non-uniformities in the gems, which scatter light and give the stone a "dead" look, like a piece of colored glass.

Some experts believe that solution growth leads to higher quality gems than melt-growth. There are two common solution growth techniques:

In addition to creating emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, the flux method is used to grow spinel and alexandrite. This method uses a supersaturated chemical bath to form the crystals. Flux Method or Flux Fusion—not to be confused with Flame Fusion—creates the highest quality and most expensive synthetic corundum (rubies and sapphires).

High quality emeralds, as well as the less common aquamarines, morganite, and beryl, can be laboratory grown by the hydrothermal method. This method uses a water solution at very high temperature and pressure over several months to create a batch of gems, which is one of the reasons higher quality created gems cost so much more.

The difference between a synthetic gem and a fake is that a true synthetic or created gem has exactly the same optical, chemical, and tangible properties as the corresponding natural gem. Any variation in chemistry removes this correspondence, and the gem cannot be legally called a true synthetic. These stones are known as simulants, man-made gems that have an outward appearance similar to a natural gem, but are physically, chemically, and optically different and, therefore, fraudulent.

Only true synthetics can be labeled as synthetic. The Federal Trade Commission regulates this, and only allows a true synthetic to be described by the following terms:

Pure gold is one of the more desirable metals on earth that is not only beautiful, but is also inflation-proof. The gold standard may no longer be in use in the United States; however, gold is the one currency acceptable world-wide. Gold is traded daily on the Commodities Exchange, where its price remains high.

Gold used in jewelry has two important characteristics that you need to know:

Most jewelry sold today is not 100% unadulterated gold--not even pieces called solid gold. Pure gold is too soft and easily damaged to be used alone in jewelry so it is alloyed with other metals for strength and durability. Pure gold is 24-karat (abbreviated 24K) and this is generally only found in the form of gold bullion or ingots. Here is a handy table listing the amount of gold for in each karatage:

In the United States, jewelry must be at least 10K in order to be sold as real gold. However, in other countries, the karatage requirement is lower. For example, in Canada the legal minimum karatage is 9K and in Mexico, it is 8K. You can see the "karat mark" stamped on most gold jewelry. Do not confuse karat with "carat," which is a measure of weight for diamonds and other gems.

Silver, copper, nickel, and zinc are commonly used as alloying metals with gold. Different combinations and proportions of these elements are used to create different gold colors, such as white and yellow or, less commonly, rose or green gold. Yellow gold remains the most popular. The higher the karatage of gold, the deeper and richer is the color and, in keeping, the higher the karatage, the greater the cost.

United States law requires that any piece of jewelry that displays the karat mark must also be stamped with the manufacturer’s trademark or hallmark. Often, the country of origin is stamped, as well.

Although the presence of karat mark, hallmark, and origin stamps will give you some assurance that you are getting the gold content you pay for, be on guard if the piece is priced very low, or you are buying from an suspect source. Recently, 10K (and lower) karatage jewelry has been sold with 14K marks. The absence of a manufacturer’s trademark should always alert you that you may be looking at falsely labeled gold.

Certainly, the amount of gold in a piece of jewelry is an important determinant of its value and selling price; however, there are many other factors. After all, you’re not buying a small gold ingot. The design, fabrication, detailing, and so forth all add value and cost to a piece of gold jewelry. Although most jewelry is constructed using machinery, there are almost always steps that require handwork. If you are purchasing a custom piece, it probably entails 100% handwork. The more handwork involved in creating a piece, the higher the price.

You don’t have to look very hard to find diamond exchanges and jewelry marts advertising 50%, 60%, and 70% off sales on a seemingly continuous basis. Can you really get a great buy at one of these places?

Unfortunately, many jewelry sellers (even large department stores) take quite a few liberties with their discount arithmetic. The big question involved here is from what price are they taking 50% off ? What was the actual original price of the piece before the discount? How long was the piece sold at that original price? How many were sold? How long has the sale been running?

The Federal Trade Commission sets specifications for discount basis--rules that most reputable independent jewelers follow scrupulously. Unfortunately, others choose to ignore the regulations and hope to skirt around the law.

Even normally reputable stores, including large upscale department stores, have been cited by Consumer Union (publishers of Consumer Reports) for advertising jewelry items on sale showing discounts from "regular prices" when the items were never offered for sale at any price by the chain before the currently advertised "sale". If a store does not play by the FTC rules, there is nothing stopping them from doubling the price of an item on Monday, and then declaring a 50% (half off) sale on Tuesday. This is phony discount fraud. At Mark’s Jewelers, we will never play that game with you.

For your protection, whenever you buy a piece of fine jewelry, make sure to have the jeweler write a complete description on your sales receipt. If you’re buying a diamond, then the carat weight, color grade, clarity grade, size, and dimensions should be listed. For multiple stones, carat weight of the main stone, as well as total carat weight including side stones, should be listed. Your jeweler should indicate if the diamond or other stones have been treated, drilled, or enhanced in any way.

For colored gems, get an exact description of their color characteristics, as well as dimensions and carat weight. Importantly, be sure to get full disclosure of any synthetic or treated stones.

Gold jewelry should always include karatage on the bill of sale.

The unmistakable allure to buying jewelry from catalogs or from cable TV is the convenience of being able to do so from the comfort and security of your own home. Catalog shoppers enjoy the anonymity of buying something without sales pressure. TV shoppers like to be "part of the action" and many just cannot resist the impulsiveness of seeing something that looks great on TV that can be purchased with a simple phone call. Unfortunately, with both catalog and TV shopping channel purchases, a large percentage of the jewelry acquired through these outlets is returned due to disappointment in quality and appearance once received or because of the dreaded "buyer's remorse". Even though jewelry items can usually be returned, most buyers do not realize that not only are they responsible for paying for shipping, handling, restocking fees, and insurance for returning the item, but they also pay those fees to receive it in the first place. It can cost you as much as $20 or more to find out you didn't really want or like a piece.

Even in situations where an impulse buy from a catalog or TV shopping channel turns out to be acceptable, the quality of the mass-produced items offered is poor. TV shoppers are often disappointed at the short wear time and frequent breakage that occurs in these items. Usually, the inconvenience and costs associated with repairing these products greatly diminishes any savings at the time of purchase.

The big box stores, the Wal-Marts, K-Marts, Price Clubs, even Sears, all sell jewelry these days. The prices are low at these stores, but of course, you cannot expect much in the way of knowledgeable assistance from the sales clerks. At best, you will be selecting from a limited offering of best sellers, which is the nature of a mass merchandiser. For people who like to feel they are choosing a piece of jewelry that is a unique reflection of themselves or the person for whom they are buying a gift, the idea that 200,000 other people are wearing the exact same thing is not appealing.

We wish to humbly request that you consider shopping for your jewelry purchase at our store. Our trained and knowledgeable staff will go out of their way to help you find that perfect piece of jewelry. Whether you are buying an indulgence for yourself or a gift that is guaranteed to take someone's breath away, we’ll make sure that you will find exactly what you want.

At Mark’s Jewelers, you will find a warm and friendly welcome, and refuge from the maddening crowds. Here is a place where you will be delighted by a vast selection of high-quality merchandise, a place where you will never be pressured to spend more than you expected, and a place where you are sure to find affordable, yet extraordinary jewelry — a great value at a great price…