From Carob to Carat – A Weighty Problem

The carat is a uniform weight measurement for diamonds; it is 0.2grams and is further divided into 100 points. So, if you see diamond engagement rings with diamonds of 25 points, it means that they weigh 0.25 grams or a quarter of a carat each. This is an easy and useful measure to remember. Obviously, the weight of diamonds is not the only thing to take into account when choosing your diamond rings, you must take into account the colour, clarity and cut to get an all round idea of the worth of your diamonds.

Historically, the carat weight derives from carob seeds, which were traditionally taken to be the smallest, reliable counter weight for diamonds. The seeds come from the carob tree and are also known as St John’s Bread, after the fact that St. John the Baptist kept himself alive in the desert by eating them.

Interestingly, a study was carried out by the University of Zurich to investigate if and why carob seeds, alone in the seed world, were of a uniform weight. The report, in the New Scientist of May 2006, concluded that they were not of a uniform weight and that this may have lead to some shady dealings in times gone by.

This could not happen now as the standardised weight of 0.2grams was introduced at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Rest assure that when you buy diamonds and diamond engagement rings from Marlows, you are purchasing the real thing at an accurate weight.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 8:23 am.

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