How to Identify a Real Diamond from an Imitation

Chances are, if you are buying a diamond ring for someone, you want your diamond to be special, durable, and most of all, authentic. With all of the imitation diamond jewelry on the market today, it is wise to know a few helpful hints on how to determine a real diamond from a fake.

Learn the tools of the trade and gather a few of these easy tricks up your sleeve. It is time to put your diamond to the test.

1. Real Diamonds are flawed; fakes are not.
While some might think that the goal in purchasing the perfect diamond is to find one that is virtually flawless—that is not always the case. Carefully crafted Cubic Zirconia sports absolutely no imperfections, making it easy to label as fake. Real, pure diamonds contain tiny ‘flaws’ which oftentimes creates a brilliance that cannot be seen in fakes.

2. Look inside your Diamond.
Much like looking inside a crystal ball, looking inside your diamond will reveal the truth about its true components and its authenticity. The key is: Real diamonds always have something inside. If you look into your diamond with a 1200x microscope, you should be able to see tiny inclusions within the stones infrastructure. If you hold the diamond in front of your eye and look through its side, you should not be able to see through it, nor should it look to be one clear, unified color. If the stone exerts zero degrees of brilliance, and if you can see through it from the side, then it is indefinitely fake.

3. Look at the Setting & Mount.
Since stones made up of imitation substances such as Cubic Zirconia and Moissanite are so much cheaper than diamonds, they are usually set in less expensive metals. Chances are, a fake diamond would not be set in real gold.

4. Check the Wear and Tear of the Stone.
Real diamonds have remarkable durability and a hardened sharpness that is strong enough to scratch glass. If there or any scratches or nicks on the surface of your Diamond, or if you can make them, then your diamond is not real.

Simple Two-Minute Tests

1. The Reading Test.
If your diamond is not mounted, set it on a newspaper. If you can see through it at all, even if you just see distorted black smudges instead of clearly-marked letters, than your diamond is a fake. Real diamonds have so many intricacies in their infrastructure that it is impossible for light to pass all the way through them without being first refracted.

2. The Sandpaper Test.
Diamonds are the hardest known substance. That being said, it is impossible for real diamond jewelry to be scratched. Using either wet or dry sandpaper, test your diamond by scratching it vigorously on the brittle surface of the paper. If it becomes nicked, it is surely a fake.

3. The Sparkle Test.
View your diamond from the top, then from the side. Compare the shiny, reflective qualities that you may have noticed when looking down onto the face of your diamond, with the way your diamond shines and reflects when being viewed at a side angle. Imitation diamonds are purposely crafted to look like real diamonds from a birds-eye-view, but are less commonly apt to carry those same characteristics throughout the rest of the stone.

The Valuation of a Diamond

There are four “C’s” in determining the valuation of a diamond:

Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat weight.

1. CUT: Judging the ‘cut’ of a diamond refers to the pricing of a diamond in accordance with how that diamond is sculpted and shaped to allow for a maximum shine and a heightened ability to reflect light. Cut can be difficult for a layperson to evaluate, so it is important to get your diamond professionally appraised and to obtain a AGS or GIA Certificate to verify the quality of the cut. A diamonds cut can also affect its durability.  
 
2. COLOR: If you are shopping for a diamond wedding ring or a diamond engagement ring, then it is important that you pay close attention to the value of a diamond’s color. A Diamonds ability to refract light is dependant on its degree of whiteness, making the whitest of white diamonds considerably more valuable than there lesser-white counterparts. Many experts name color as the number one criterion to consider when purchasing a special diamond for a special occasion.

3. CLARITY: Real diamonds generally tend to have small flaws such as tiny inclusions, air bubbles, or traces of other minerals inside the stone. While the presence of these tiny imperfections become the key factor in determining a real diamond from a fake, the quality and value of a diamond depends very much on a diamonds clarity. The best kinds of real diamonds have imperfections that can only be detected under a skilled diamond graders 10-power microscope.
   
4. CARAT WEIGHT: The ‘carat’ is the common unit weight measurement for diamonds, where one carat is equal to 200 milligrams and 142 carats equal one ounce. The bigger the rock, the more carats it has, and the more carats it has, the more expensive it becomes. Many feel that the size of the diamond is just as important as the other ‘C’ criterion.