In everyday practice, most diamonds are viewed in daylight. In truth, daylight is too variable and contains too much ultraviolet to be used in the grading of stones. The light from most ordinary fluorescent lamps contains too much ultraviolet for accurate color grading, and incandescent bulbs are too yellow and too intense. The best grading lights are "daylight" fluorescent lamps. They produce light that is fairly close to noon sunlight, with minimal amounts of ultraviolet.

But, as was mentioned, most diamonds are not viewed under such consistent lighting conditions when they are shown to friends and loved ones. For this reason and others, diamonds are often given a fluorescence classification. There are a vast many types of classifications, most of which will not appear in our listing due to their negative effects on diamonds.

There are several, however, that can actually have a positive effect on a diamond. To start, the optimum classification to have would be "none" (N, NO or sometimes just blank) in most cases. A few other classifications include "faint" or "faint blue" (F or FB). If just "faint" is given, it is assumed that the color of the Fluorescence is blue. Such a classification is actually beneficial to the look of diamonds in the lower color ranges (H, I or below but really in J or lower). From there the classification moves down to "medium" or "medium blue" (M or MB) and lower.

As we do not directly control the input of each stone, it is impossible for us to control the codes that are used. We have, however, become quite good at interpreting what the codes out there stand for. If you have any questions about a specific code, please don't hesitate to Contact us.