Beware of the Fracture-Filled Diamond!



Photo from Debeers.com

 Diamonds are a great investment - they look amazing (especially when you're wearing them), they last extremely long periods of time, and they can be sold for a profit. Similar to the price of gold, the price of diamonds is slowly rising as well.

When you buy a diamond, you want to make sure you are getting your money's worth - similar to buying a car. You feel much more confident when you can drive off the lot without having to worry about hidden mechanical problems. It is smart to know the "features" of your diamond too!

Each diamond is unique and can be identified by internal imperfections known "inclusions." Inclusions are tiny cracks or particles that can be visible either to the naked eye or by microscope. To make the diamond look more uniform, some diamond providers fill the cracks. This eliminates the immediate visibility of the cracks, but can be identified if as a flash of pink or orange when the diamond is viewed in bright light(see image above).

Why should you avoid fracture-filled diamonds? It is difficult to determine the true value of a filled diamond and how resistant it is to cracking apart. Oftentimes, jewelers will not buy fracture-filled diamonds from you or will offer a buying price far lower than what you paid. They are often hesitant to work with fracture-filled diamonds because these diamonds have a higher likelihood of breaking in the process of being set into jewelry.

My advice to you: Avoid fracture-filled diamonds! It is wise to treat jewelry as an investment and it is much easier to sell or trade up if your diamonds are truly valuable.