There is a common misconception that the term carat indicates the size of the diamond. Actually this term refers to the weight of the diamond. One carat is roughly about 200 milligrams, which is less than a quarter of an ounce. A carat can also be broken up into 100 points. This means that three quarter of a carat is equivalent to 75 points.
The heavier the diamond (in carat weight), the rarer it becomes and the increase in price is exponential with the diamond's weight. Hence two half-carat diamonds will cost much lesser than a one-carat diamond, assuming that other attributes, such as color and clarity, are equal.
The size of the diamond can also be impacted by its cutting. Depending on how the cut is done, two one-carat diamonds can look unequal in size. While a flatter stone will appear bigger, a deeper cut stone will look smaller. A deeper cut stone usually has more brilliance and scintillation. So even though a flatter cut stone will appear larger or heavier, it may have less brilliance and can look cloudy.
Much as the diamond's carat weight is important, it should not sacrifice too much of its other qualities. From both a personal and investment standpoint, i feel that a beautiful one-carat diamond with outstanding brilliance and scintillation is going to be the better choice compared to a one-carat diamond that looks like a two-carat stone. You may be tempted to purchase a stone that has a flatter cut so that you can have the appearance of a larger or heavier stone, but this i feel might not be a wise choice.
A smaller diamond can always be enhanced with baguettes, trillians or smaller same-shape stones on either side. As mentioned earlier, two smaller stones won't cost as much as an equally-weighted single stone. With this knowledge, you can therefore increase the importance of the ring you're buying without doubling your cost.
To summarized, in purchasing a diamond always look at the carat of the single largest stone. Do not be fool if the jeweler said that two half-carat diamonds is as precious as a one-carat diamond.
By Karl Lee
