By Jamie Hughes, Seasonal Interpreter

Greetings from the Crater of Diamonds State Park!  Each year, thousands of tourists visit Arkansas to experience the only site on Earth where diamonds can be found and kept.  After hearing and reading stories of significant diamond finds, and especially after seeing a picture of a small child holding a diamond the size of an English pea, naturally the question comes up: “How much would a diamond like that be worth?”

I would love to be able to quote a price range for every diamond in question, but the truth is the staff here at the Crater does not appraise a diamond’s value. There are several factors that determine a diamond’s market price.

The variable qualities of diamonds are grouped into four major categories, commonly referred to as “The Four Cs.” These are carat, color, clarity, and cut. Only a highly trained, certified gemologist would be able to appraise a diamond according to these factors.

Another variable to consider is the actual diamond market. De Beers controls about seventy percent of the global diamond market, therefore setting the actual price of each individual gem.

Once diamonds are unearthed, they are washed, weighed, and sorted for size, color, shape, and quality. Each diamond is then cut and graded, most often using the grading systems introduced in the 1930s by the American Gemological Institute. These grading systems practically became the world standard in diamond grading. Diamond prices are based on all four “Cs.” Individual taste will determine whether one considers color, clarity, cut, or size most important.

Remember that “carat” refers to weight, not size. Carat weight is the most intuitive of the four Cs: you expect a larger diamond to be worth more when assigning diamond values. Diamonds and other gems are weighed using metric carats. A carat is equal to .02 grams. Each carat is divided into 100 points. Two diamonds of equal weight can have very different values depending on the other three characteristics of a diamond’s four Cs. Diamonds over two carats are considerably rarer than smaller ones and may cost four times as much as one carat gems. Assuming comparable quality, the larger the gem, the higher the price per carat.

Diamonds are most often graded for color using the GIA’s color grading system, on a scale of the colorless “D” to the dark yellow “Z.” While diamonds may be virtually any color, those with “white” or colorless features are most in demand and greater in value. The significance of a diamond’s color on the stone’s price is an important factor to consider.  Just as history shows a higher appreciation for larger stones, it also shows the greatest appreciation for those in the higher color categories. Several grading systems exist, but the most accurate involves use of a reflectance spectrophotometer. This instrument eliminates opinion and is able to measure color with a plus-or-minus 3 accuracy on a scale of 10.000 units.

Diamonds are also graded according to their degree of clarity. Eleven GIA clarity grades, judged at 10X magnification, cover all diamonds from “flawless” to three “imperfect” grades with visible inclusions.

Probably the greatest reason why the staff at the Crater do not appraise a diamond’s value, though, is because cut matters. Without a doubt, the allure of a diamond depends more on cut than anything else. Though extremely difficult to analyze, the cut of a diamond has three attributes: brightness (the total light reflected from a diamond), fire (the dispersion of light into the colors of the spectrum), and scintillation (the light flashes - or sparkle - when a diamond moves). The standard round brilliant dominates the majority of diamond jewelry. All other diamond shapes are known as fancy cuts and include the marquise, pear, oval, and emerald cuts. Hearts, cushions, triangles, and a variety of other new shapes are also gaining popularity. The round brilliant is considered ideal because it holds the greatest amounts of brightness, fire, and scintillation.

So, when Crater of Diamonds staff members are asked how much a diamond is worth, we simply tell our visitors that we don’t know. We can accurately weigh a diamond and even make an educated guess on its color. But when it comes to clarity and cut, your guess would be as good as ours!

Search area last plowed:  August 26, 2009, Total diamonds so far in 2009 - 744

Diamond finds for August 14th to August 30th (100 pts. = 1 carat):

August 24 - David Wilkins, Deer Park, TX, 1.05 ct.

August 25 - Victor Lengrand, Middle River, MD, 9 pt.

August 26 - No diamonds registered

August 27 - Phronia Lee, Howard City, MI, 50 pt.

August 28 - No diamonds registered

August 29  - Tim Pittman, Jacksonville, AR, 26 pt.

August 30 - No diamonds registered