Jewelry Appraisal
Jewelry appraisal is the act of having a jeweler give you a written statement of the value of a certain piece of jewelry. It is broken down by metal (gold, silver, platinum) as well as by gemstone (diamond, ruby, emerald) with each receiving different weights. The specifics of the appraisal will differ depending on who you have as an appraiser, but several things are shared.
Among jewelry appraisals, much of the gem appraisal is standardized. The appraiser looks for the color, cut, clarity, and carat size of the gem to determine its worth. Diamonds are a great example of the grading scale for gems, as it is extremely prevalent in the diamond industry. The clarity scale for diamonds is extensive, with eleven total grades ranging from flawless all the way down to included. A flawless gem, as the name implies, is visually flawless, even under significant magnification. An included gem has large impurities that can be seen without magnification by an untrained eye. To rate that low, the inclusions are usually of the type that may threaten the durability of the stone. Clarity is just one of the four major factors that is evaluated when looking at a diamond.
The metal valuation is much more straightforward than the gemstone appraisal. The type of metal, amount, and the quality of the metal are all that is looked at in the jewelry appraisal’s metal section. The karat grading of gold is different from the carat weight of diamonds. One is an indication of purity, while the other an indication of size. You may have heard terms like 18 karat or 24 karat gold thrown about, but understanding what those terms mean is something else entirely. A karat for metallurgical purposes is one twenty fourth (1/24) purity. That means 24 karat gold is 99.99% pure gold, where 18 karat gold is 75% pure gold. Much jewelry is made in 18 karat gold, because alloying gold with a more durable metal, such as nickel or steel, creates more durable jewelry. This is all taken into account in a qualified jewelry appraisal.