When diamond browsing, nobody wants to appear like a fool, and everyone wants to receive the best bang for their buck. Let's face it right now, even if you get the greatest deal of a lifetime, diamonds are not cheap. Out of all the precious gems, they are by far the most expensive on the market, and these are also the ones that are held to the highest requirements as far as quality can go.

When displaying a big rock proudly on your finger, neck, or ear lobe, of course you want it to spark and shine as much as it possibly can. That's exactly where the 4 C's come in. They are cut, color, clarity and carat. Let's take a look at each in more detail.

Let's start with cut. This refers to the effective cut of the stone, not the "shape" of the stone, such as round or princess, which is what the term is far too often employed to mean. All diamonds are removed from the ground as raw, rough stones, shaped a whole lot like a piece of gravel from your driveway. These are then cut into the shape of the final product you see using a large set of refining wheels. The better the quality the cut, the nicer the angles, and the more light you will see reflected back to the viewer in the form of glisten.

The next C, color, is the color of the gem. A diamond with a poor color rating will appear to have a yellowish tint, where as a really clear stone is "colorless". These are rated using an easy to understand lettering system, starting at D. The letters D, E and F are each considered to be absolutely colorless for all circumstances, with D having the least color of all.

Clarity references the number of flaws in the diamond itself, which are tiny bits of minerals that have been trapped inside the stone around the time it was created. The more clear the diamond, the more appealing it will appear to the naked eye.

Carat goes without explanation. This is the diamond's size, measured by weight - nothing more, nothing less. The larger the carat number, the larger the rock.

The document you just read was created by Alberto Maeses, a certified diamontologist and author. Please see religious jewelry and also gemstone rings.