The diamond colour that you prefer is certainly a very personal choice.
Colour grades are determined by comparison to a master set. Each grade represents a step on the colour scale and is a measure of how noticeable the colour is. Nina’s use the GIA colour scale for white and fancy coloured diamonds and also the Argyle Pink Diamond scale.
In white diamonds, the full scale goes from D all the way to Z, Nina’s mostly work with white grades from D to H.
Where the white scale finishes the GIA coloured scale starts.
In this scale the assessment changes from numbers to name grades. These grades refer to both the colour and the intensity, or saturation, of that colour. For instance, this diagram below shows the difference between VERY LIGHT ORANGE, FANCY ORANGE and FANCY DEEP ORANGE diamonds.
When it comes to purchasing coloured diamonds, the value of a stone is more heavily weighted to aspects of its colour (its rarity and strength) than the other three “C’s”. The price of a coloured diamond will usually increase with the saturation of its colour, meaning it could be many times more valuable than a comparable size white diamond
Argyle’s discovery of brilliant pink, champagne and cognac diamonds and their growth in popularity has changed the perception of coloured diamonds forever.
The unique qualities of the coloured stones from the Kimberley lead Argyle to develop their own colour grading scale for their pink diamonds.
The diamonds sit in one of four colour categories:
- Purplish Pink (PP)
- Pink (P)
- Pink Rosé (PR)
- Pink Champagne (PC)
In each category the intensity is defined by a number that goes from 9 to 1 (or 1 to 3 in the case of Pink Champagne) with the strength of the colour.
Due to the unique nature and tones produced a the Argyle Diamond Mine, Argyle have developed their own colour-grading scale.
