What does your Ruby gemstone say? Why
are Blue Sapphires so expensive? What makes diamonds irresistible to look at?
All these questions will be answered once you polish your knowledge in quality
specifications of precious gemstones. Popularly known as The Four C’s of judgement
Color, Clarity, Carat, and Cut determine the price and value of a gemstone.
Color
Color of a gemstone has three sub categories which are the decisive factors.
These are:
Hue
A gemstone has one basic color. For
example Red opal. Now when the gemstone will show blue or yellow tinge, that
will be called hue. In bluish green emerald and a yellowish green peridot, blue
and yellow are the hues of the stones respectively.
Saturation
In plane terms, saturation can be
understood as richness of a particular color. The more the saturation level is,
the desirability of the stone increases. However, desirability is subjective to
human fancies, but a stone high in saturation is valuable as well. Also,
inclusion are more visible in light and poorly colored stone, therefore the
value of such stone decreases.
Tone
Tone is the lightness and darkness of a
color with respect to the color absorbed by a stone. It is noteworthy that tone
increases with saturation because of the maximum light absorbed.
Cut
Yes, as a human, it is not difficult to
understand why cut of a gem is important and why it is done at the first place.
Cutting a gemstone can be compared to all the hassles we take to beautify our
outer appearance.
Clarity
This factor depends on the inclusions, fractures
and their positioning in a gemstone. Though it lesser number of inclusions
ensure better quality of a stone; however, in case of Blue Sapphire, inclusions
actually add to the beauty of the stone. An inclusion free gemstone is rare,
therefore, visually smaller, lesser, and lighter inclusions are acceptable. As
long as they are less visible and located near the gridle, a gemstone is
valuable and desirable.
Carat
Value of gemstone also depends on the
weight of the stone, which is measured in carats. A gemstone’s worth is
determined with its per carat rate.
