Color. Many people think of diamonds as colorless. However, truly colorless diamonds are rare. Many of the diamonds used in jewelry are nearly colorless with faint yellow or brown tints. These diamonds fall in the normal color range. A diamond that is said to have 'fine color' has little or no visible coloration. The less color, the higher the value of the diamond.
The diamond color scale begins with D and follows alphabetically to Z. In the D-Z color range, a D color diamond will always be more valuable than other diamonds, when all other factors (clarity, carat weight, and cut) are equal.
Diamonds outside the normal color range are called fancy-colors and come in about any color you can imagine (pink, red, green, purple, black, blue, yellow and more).
Why does the color grading system start at D? The grading system was introduced by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) as a way to maintain a standard among grades of diamonds. Before this system was introduced, a variety of other symbols were loosely applied throughout the diamond industry. Not only were A, B, and C used without clear definition, but some dealers, taking a cue from the poultry business perhaps, started grading their diamonds double A (AA).
Other systems used numbers or words to describe the color of diamonds. Some of these systems were extremely susceptible to misinterpretation.
The creators of the GIA Color Scale wanted to start fresh. They wanted symbols that would not have any association with earlier systems. Thus the scale starts at the letter D. There may be some people still clinging to other grading systems, but no other system has the clarity and universal acceptance of the GIA scale.
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