If you’re looking at buying a diamond for a piece of jewellery, then you need to make sure that you’ve done all your research so you can get what you want for the best price available. This article should help outline some of the details to help you with your purchase.
The first thing to know is how diamonds are graded. When you go to a jeweler’s, you’ll hear them talk about the 4 C’s. This stands for the various aspects that are important in identifying your diamond; cut, colour, carat and clarity. The cut of your diamond will determine the brightness and the brilliant appearance of it, the carat is the weight. The colour will identify if the diamond is fully clear or if it has a yellow tone, making it less valuable. The clarity depends on the diamond’s clarity characteristics, such as blemishes, scratches or any mineral deposits on or within the diamond.
A VVS diamond, known as a very slightly included diamond, is one of the highest grades a diamond can have as the clarity is near perfect. Whilst these VVS diamonds will still have some tiny inclusions either on the surface of the diamond or within it, they’re only visible with a 10x microscope. They’re undetectable to the human eye, giving them the appearance of a perfect diamond for a lesser price. These VVS diamonds can also be narrowed down further into two categories, VVS1 and VVS2. A VVS1 diamond is considered slightly higher on the clarity scale as the blemishes on these diamonds are closer to the end of the stone, making them much harder to identify. A VVS2 diamond will have blemishes towards the centre of the stone and are therefore more visible. It is worth knowing, however, whilst a VVS2 diamond will have these imperfections in a more visible place it’s only if they’re under a microscope being examined by a professional. You won’t be able to see these marks by just looking; a VVS2 diamond will still look practically flawless to the human eye.
If you’re open to other diamonds when you’re looking for a VVS diamond, you should also be aware of the full clarity grading scale so that when you’re looking you fully understand what you’re looking at. The scale ranges from flawless stones, FL, to included stones, I. A VVS diamond ranks very highly, only under flawless and internally flawless stones, so they’re incredibly valuable and desired diamonds. Just under a VVS diamond is VS diamonds, which are very slightly included. These diamonds are often very close to a VVS diamond to the human eye, but with a much lower price tag.
VVS diamonds are incredibly popular, as they appear flawless but with a price much lower than an actually flawless diamond as truly flawless diamonds are incredibly rare and therefore incredibly expensive. These VVS diamonds tend to be the first choice for customers that are after a visually perfect diamond.
