Tanzanites

The five C’s were created by The Tanzanite Foundation as a means to grade the qualities of a tanzanite in a similar way to that of a diamond, this is known as The Tanzanite Quality Scale™. Getting a strong understanding of these principals can be a useful exercise when considering using one of these lovely gemstones in your Tanzanite engagement ring, wedding rings or eternity ring.

The condition of each of these categories can have a great affect upon the value of a tanzanite, however although a gemstone may have a strong grading in one category it’s value will still be relative to that of the grading of these other elements e.g. a tanzanite of 1ct in weight is usually considered to be of high value, however if the clarity and colour for example are very poor, this will of course affect the overall value of the gemstone. When looking for the perfect tanzanite for your engagement ring on a budget you want to look for a good balance of these features, it is of course down to personal choice so you may wish to favour one of these elements. The following is a breakdown of these grading categories:

Clarity – This, just like with a diamond refers in simplistic terms to how ‘clear’ the gemstone is i.e. how many natural flaws or inclusions the tanzanite has internally and externally. A tanzanite with very few inclusions will have a better clarity grading and will be considered more valuable and are of course rarer, when compared to one that has a cloudy appearance with many natural flaws. Below is the terms given according to the The Tanzanite Quality Scale™ for clarity:

IF Internally Flawless
EC / EF Eye Clean / Eye Flawless
SI Slightly Included
MI Moderately Included
HI Heavily Included

Colour – Tanzanite is a trichroic gemstone which can display a range of colours in the violet, blue and burgundy colour ranges when viewed on a separate axis. They can usually be sourced in a range of colours such as periwinkle, royal blue, indigo, violet and lilac. The colour of an ideal tanzanite should have a strong blue colour with a heavy degree of violet saturation. Just as a very white coloured diamond is considered more valuable, so is a tanzanite with a deep blue/violet colour. Below is the terms given according to the The Tanzanite Quality Scale™ for colour, this would be preceded by a B or V to indicate the predominant hue e.g. a tanzanite with a strong violetish blue colour of very high quality would be categorised as a vBVe.

Ve Vivid Exceptional
V1 Vivid 1
V2 Vivid 2
I1 Intense 1
I2 Intense 2
F1 Fancy 1
F2 Fancy 2
L1 Light 1
L2 Light 2
P Pale

If you’re interested in some more info read on with Part Two to find out about the rest of the grading categories for this beautiful gemstones with cut, carat and confidence!