Quick and Easy Buying Guide
Carat weight: 1 carat = 200 milligrams = 6.5 mm diameter. Doubling weight doesn't double diameter.
Diamond clarity: FL/IF/VVS/VS = super expensive, near perfect. SI = best value if you can check a photo for obvious inclusions (defects).
Color: D-G = colorless, expensive, only if you have money to burn. H-J = best value. Can go lower in gold metal settings than white metal.
Cut: Better cut ratings let more light into a diamond, making it sparkle more. Very important property, don't skimp here.
Set a budget and minimum cut (Premium). Go J color for gold and I/H for white metals. Go searching for SI1/SI2 clarity diamonds at James Allen. Pick a diamond with small/no inclusions. Choose a ring setting and buy it risk-free (60-day returns).
2.65 Carat Diamonds
Each carat in a diamond is equivalent to 200 mg, so this 2.65 carat diamond weighs 530 mg. Carat size does not equate exactly to a certain width of diamond, because the diamond may be short and fat, or tall and lanky, meaning 2.65 carats of diamond will not always be synonymous with 9.07 mm of diamond.
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To help you analyse your various diamond options, one measure you can use is the cost per carat measure.
Remember while the diamond may disappear into insignificance compared to a man's hand, women generally have significantly smaller hands with thinner fingers - the diamond will appear a lot larger when placed on their hand. There's a lot of hearsay on the internet about the average size of a diamond used in a typical diamond engagement ring - it's around half carat - but that of course doesn't give you any information about the typical clarity or colour of the diamond, and that in itself should tell you how useless that statistic is in isolation.
Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust. John Webster .
You can trade carat size for diamond rarity by doing something like choosing a pink diamond. If you do this, perhaps you'd like to consider putting in a bid for the darya-ye noor diamond which is the largest pink diamond the world, or 182 carats of it. To get it, you'd have to go to iran however..
Don't forget to think about other diamond characteristics such as diamond cut, which plays a critical role in determining the amount of light that gets into the diamond and the degree to which the diamond sparkles in light.