Something’s missing here…hmm…even my 4 year old can sing the alphabet in his sleep. A, B, C, D, E, F, G…so how did A, B and C get left out of the color grading scale and skipped straight to D??
The first ever official grading of Diamonds was in England by the London Diamond Syndicate – in order to sort through rough Diamonds for sale. From that point up until the 1940s there were many different color systems diamond traders used…
Letters of the alphabet (A, AA, AAA; A, B and C, with multiple A’s for the best stones), Arabic (0, 1, 2, 3) and Roman Numerals(I, II, III), and descriptions such as “golconda”, “river”, “jagers”, “cape”, “blue white”, “fine white”, “gem blue” and “brown” and more…
– comparing and determining Diamond Color was confusing, inconsistent and inaccurate.
Then along came the Gemological Institute of America, shaking its head and offering us a deep sigh of relief! At last! The Color Grading Scale along with so many of the GIA’s incredible work in the field of diamond grading, was developed in the 1940’s and 50’s. The GIA wanted a fresh start and to avoid any association with the past bedlam surrounding Color Grading. Thus the Color Grading System we have today was born – starting not with the already confusing I, 1 or A …but the fresh and untouched letter D. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Today, across the Globe, Diamond experts fully co-operate and use the GIA Diamond Grading Chart, ranging from Perfect, Colorless “D” to Yellowish, Brownish “Z”.
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