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[lib135]

If I have a 1.53 princess cut. How does the measurement affect the value? I ask because for a 1.53 the measurements are only 6.24x6.17x4.58? any ideas? Thanks. Also, I am not asking for worth here, just curious if smaller measurement has any signifigant affect on value??

[davidelevi]

There's a number of trade offs involved (a slice of diamond thin as a piece of paper looks large for its weight, but it's not very attractive to look at, nor very robust), but all else being equal, a large looking diamond ("spready") will be more desirable, and thus more valuable/expensive than a smaller looking one. The relationship is not a simple one, since a diamond that is too spready will not look good because of its optics, but there is a range of proportions for which the relationship holds.

On princesses, bear in mind that the main reason why princess cuts cost up to 50% less than rounds for the same weight is that princesses "waste" much less of the rough diamond. The princess cut is up to 80% efficient (meaning for a 1.00 carat of rough you can get a 0.80 ct princess cut), but the round cut is only 50-60% efficient. The flipside of this is that since the size of the piece of rough is a limit on how large (w x d x h) the cut diamond will be, diamonds cut efficiently will also appear smaller, since for the same final weight the cutter can start from a smaller piece of rough.

Incidentally, for a 1.5x princess, the size you reported is not terribly small (it comes up 33rd on 100 similar diamonds for sale here).

ETA For comparison, a "similarly ranked" round would be about 7.27-7.30mm in diameter, which looks significantly bigger. However, a similar weight round is also nearly 30% more expensive...

Edited by davidelevi, 13 May 2010 - 07:00 AM.