Diamonds are an expensive investment. For most people shopping for a diamond, they want to find quality at a great price. Therefore, many people will turn to online auctions on the internet, estate sales, and online companies. Typically, these options are legitimate and offer an excellent means for buying a great diamond at a great price. However, that nagging question, “How do I know the diamond is real?” seems to always be lingering overhead.
In actuality, this question is a good one, especially with the manmade diamonds available today being so strikingly similar to the real thing. In fact, most people cannot tell the difference between a fake and the “Real McCoy.” Some manmade materials used for making “diamonds” include clear crystals, colorless gems, and simple glass. With these types of materials, spotting a fake “diamond” is easy. However, now with new materials such as cubic zirconia and Moissanite, coupled with technology, telling the difference between fake and real becomes far more challenging.
Ideally, you should have any diamond checked out by a legitimate jeweler or certified diamond cutter. It’s hard to do that when you’re buying from an online auction site but it’s worth it to find a way. You could lose a lot of money and be dreadfully disappointed if you learn you bought a fake. There are some things to do if you think you’re being shown a cubic zirconium.
One good test is simply to breathe on the gem. If it’s a cubic zirconium, then the fog will stay on it for a while. If it’s truly a diamond, it will clear up right away. Another method is to try writing on it with an ink pen. Ink balls up on a cubic zirconium and makes a line on a diamond. One more thing to try is to turn the stone over and try reading a newspaper through the back. If you can easily make out the print, then you probably are holding an imitation. This wouldn’t be true however, with a real diamond that was cut shallowly.
Cubic zirconium weigh about 55% more than a similarly sized diamond. Try to compare it to a diamond you know is authentic by weighing both of them on a carat or gram scale. Also, real diamonds look fluorescent blue under black light. Most manmade stones will not show the blue color. As for quality, the bluer the diamond, the worse the quality. You may know your stone is real, but it may not be as good as you expected.
Other options include using a magnifying glass. Start by looking carefully at the facets from the top of the stone to see how well they are joined. Facets for real diamonds would be sharp, not a rolled appearance. Then, the girdles will need to be checked to see if they are faceted or frosty in appearance, which represents real. However, if the girdles are waxy and slick, the stone is a fake. You have a number of ways to make sure you get what you are paying for, but these are insiders secret tips that work.
Copyright 2006, Joy McDougle, All Rights Reserved. This article may be published on web sites or in newsletters provided this notice and the resource box is included without ammendment.
Joy McDougle runs the Raja Diamonds, web site that focuses on a range of resources about real diamonds. For more details, go to: www.rajadiamonds.com
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