Gemstones and other rare earth metals are primarily made of solid particles. For that matter, their amounts are scientifically measured through units of weight. These units, such as kilograms, grams, pounds and metric tons are extensively used and therefore, people have a fair idea about them.
However, when it comes to measuring the weight of a gemstone, all these prevailing units prove to be way bigger. For instance, barring exceptions, you can’t find gemstones in grams, let alone other larger units. Therefore, the gem industry has standardized a different weight unit to quantify gemstones to assess their value. This unit is called ‘carat’.
Since the carat is exclusively used in the gem industry, many people don’t know what this unit entails. In this article, we are going to discuss it in detail so that you are better aware when dealing with gems.
The Connection between Carat and Carob Seed
Like many existing systems with their roots in interesting historical anecdotes, the story of carat coming into existence is also an intriguing one. It is said that some gem traders somewhere in the 16th and 17th century decided to set the value of precious stones in proportion to their exact weight. During that time, businesses were run without any established unit system for any type of measurement.
Traders who used to work in the African marketplace are aware of carob seeds. The interesting bit regarding these seeds is that all of them are identical in their shape, size, and mass. Carob seeds were once part of a staple diet of many African nations because of its rich sugar content.
The uniformity of carob seeds sparked the idea to use them as counterweights for precious and small items i.e. gemstones. There use in a balance scale as a counterweight became quickly popular because of the reliability provided by the consistent shape and weight of carob seeds. Soon after this experiment, it became a norm in the gem industry to weigh gemstones against carob seeds.
After the advent of sensitive weighing machines, it was found that a single carob seed approximately weighs 200 milligrams. Meanwhile, the pronunciation of ‘carob’ had also been distorted with its use as a weighing unit in different parts of the world. After some years of this standardization, people had started calling it ‘carat’. So, when it was formally reorganized as a weight unit at the beginning of the 20th century, it was given the name ‘carat’, the distorted term which had become more popular than the original term.
Carat or Karat
It is really important to discuss the confusion surrounding these two words with the same phonetics. The term ‘karat’ is mostly associated with gold, which is not a gemstone but revered and valued as one.
To put in simple words, karat is an arbitrary unit used to measure the purity of gold. Pure gold is considered 24-karats. Since pure gold is extremely soft and malleable, it is mixed with other minerals (copper, nickel etc) for stabilization. Coins, jewelry and other gold items that we usually see are not made of a pure specimen. Let’s try to understand karat and its distinction from carat through numbers.
An 18-karat gold item is made of a 75% pure mineral. This means 18 parts of gold is mixed with six parts of other minerals to stabilize the contrived object. In a similar manner, every object made of gold is divided into 24 parts to measure its purity. A 12-karat gold specimen would include 12 parts of pure gold and 12 parts of stabilizing minerals.
Therefore, karat and carat are not one and the same. Karat is not a weighing unit and neither is it used for any material except gold. But carat is a standardized metric unit of mass and the entire worldwide gem trade uses it to weigh and value precious stones.
Subdivisions of Carat
Not all gemstone are equal in their exhibition and value. A carat of opal can’t be equal to the same weight of an emerald or ruby. And then there is a gem of all gems i.e. diamond. People who have brought this king gemstone in the form of jewelry would be well aware of the value of a carat of diamond.
In most of the diamond rings, the stones used are way less than one-carat. For that matter, jewelers have subdivided one carat into 100 pointers. A single pointer is equal to two milligrams. If a diamond cut weighs 0.25 carat, it can be referred to as a ‘twenty-five pointer’ stone.
Diamonds and Carats
As mentioned earlier, carat measurements are very essential when it comes to measuring diamond cuts. The price of a diamond is actually derived by the shape of the cut, color of the specimen, clarity of the stone and its weight in carats.
The Craze of Magic Sizes
In terms of their carat weight, diamonds also come in some ‘magical sizes’. Diamond cuts with the definite carat measurements are usually referred by this term. For instance, one-carat, half-carat, and even three-quarter carat diamonds are called magic sizes and have a price higher than the regular specimens with arbitrary carat or pointer measurements. Diamonds can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions. Their price all depends upon their cuts, color, clarity and their weight in carats.
The craze among gem lovers with respect to magic sizes can be understood by the fact that a one-carat diamond specimen can be 20 percent more expensive than a 0.99-carat cut. It is important to mention here that both these specimens look exactly the same in ornamental objects and even an expert can’t tell them apart without measuring their weight.
Mawe ya thamani na metali nyingine za dunia nadra hutengenezwa hasa kwa chembe ngumu. Kwa habari hiyo, kiasi chao hupimwa kisayansi kupitia vitengo vya uzito. Vipimo kama vile kilogramu, gramu, pauni na tani za metrik hutumiwa sana na kwa hivyo watu wana wazo la haki juu yao. Hata hivyo, linapokuja suala la kupima uzito wa jiwe la thamani, vitengo vyote hivyo vinavyotumiwa ni vikubwa zaidi. Kwa mfano, isipokuwa kwa mambo ya kipekee, huwezi kupata mawe ya thamani katika gramu, achilia mbali vitengo vingine vikubwa. Kwa hiyo, sekta ya vito imeweka kiwango cha kipimo tofauti cha uzito ili kupima vito vya thamani ili kutathmini thamani yake. Kitengo hiki huitwa <unk>carat<unk>. Kwa kuwa carat hutumiwa tu katika sekta ya vito, watu wengi hawajui kitengo hiki kinamaanisha nini. Katika makala hii, tutazungumzia kwa undani jinsi ya kuepuka kuharibu vito vya thamani. Karate na mbegu ya carob ni aina ya mbegu ya karoti ambayo inazalisha mbegu za karoti, na kwa sababu ya kuvutia kwa historia, inaonekana kuwa ya kawaida. Inasemekana kwamba katika karne ya 16 na ya 17 wafanyabiashara fulani wa vito waliamua kuweka thamani ya vito vya thamani kulingana na uzito wao halisi. Wakati huo, biashara ziliendeshwa bila mfumo wowote wa kitengo uliowekwa kwa aina yoyote ya kipimo. Wafanyabiashara waliotumia kazi katika soko la Afrika wanajua kuhusu mbegu za karobasi. Jambo lenye kupendeza kuhusu mbegu hizo ni kwamba zote zina umbo, ukubwa, na uzito uleule. Mbegu za karobasi zilikuwa sehemu ya chakula cha kawaida cha mataifa mengi ya Afrika kwa sababu ya sukari nyingi zilizomo. Utaratibu wa mbegu za carob ulisababisha wazo la kuzitumia kama uzito wa kupinga kwa vitu vya thamani na vidogo yaani. mawe ya thamani. Matumizi ya mizani ya kupima uzito kama kiunganishi yalianza kuenea kwa haraka kwa sababu ya kuegemea kwa umbo na uzito wa mbegu za carob. Muda mfupi baada ya jaribio hilo, ikawa desturi katika sekta ya mawe ya thamani kupima mawe ya thamani dhidi ya mbegu za karobasi. Baada ya kutengenezwa mashine za kupima uzito, iligunduliwa kwamba mbegu moja ya karobani inazidi uzito wa miligramu 200. Wakati huohuo, matamshi ya <unk>carob<unk> pia yalikuwa yamepotoshwa kwa sababu ya kutumiwa kama kitengo cha kupima katika sehemu tofauti-tofauti za ulimwengu. Baada ya miaka michache ya utaratibu huo, watu walikuwa wameanza kuiita <unk>carat<unk>. "Kwa hiyo, wakati ilipopangwa upya rasmi kama kitengo cha uzito mwanzoni mwa karne ya 20, ilipewa jina la ""carat,"" neno lililopotoka ambalo lilikuwa limekuwa maarufu zaidi kuliko neno la awali." Karat au Karat Ni muhimu sana kujadili kuchanganyikiwa kuzunguka maneno haya mawili na fonetiki sawa. Neno <unk>karat<unk> hasa huhusianishwa na dhahabu, ambayo si jiwe la thamani lakini huheshimiwa na kuthaminiwa kama moja. Kwa maneno sahili, karati ni kipimo cha dhahabu kinachotumiwa kupima usafi wake. Dhahabu safi ni dhahabu yenye karati 24. Kwa kuwa dhahabu safi ni laini sana na inaweza kubadilika-badilika, huchanganywa na madini mengine (shaba, nikeli nk) ili kuimarisha. Sarafu, vito na vitu vingine vya dhahabu ambavyo kwa kawaida tunaona havitengenezwa kwa mfano safi. Hebu jaribu kuelewa karat na tofauti yake kutoka carat kupitia namba. 18 carat dhahabu ya Ankhor ni ya asili ya dhahabu ya asili ya Ankhor. Kwa mfano, sehemu 18 za dhahabu huchanganywa na sehemu 6 za madini mengine ili kuimarisha umbo la kiumbe. Kwa mfano, kila kitu kilichofanyizwa kwa dhahabu kinagawanywa katika sehemu 24 ili kupima usafi wake. Kwa mfano, dhahabu ya akari 12 ina sehemu 12 za dhahabu safi na sehemu 12 za madini ya kudumisha. Kwa hiyo, karati na karati si kitu kimoja. Karati si kitengo cha kupima uzito wala haitumiki kwa ajili ya kitu kingine chochote isipokuwa dhahabu. Karati ni kipimo cha kiwango cha thamani cha mawe ya thamani, na kwa hivyo inatumika kwa biashara ya mawe ya thamani duniani kote. Mgawanyiko wa Karati Si mawe yote ya thamani yaliyo sawa katika maonyesho na thamani yake. Karati moja ya opali haiwezi kuwa na uzito uleule wa zumaridi au rubi. Na kisha kuna jiwe la thamani ya mawe yote yaani almasi. Watu ambao wamebeba jiwe hili la kifalme katika namna ya vito watakuwa na ufahamu wa thamani ya carat ya almasi. Katika pete nyingi za almasi, mawe yanayotumiwa ni madogo sana kuliko karati moja. Kwa mfano, wataalamu wa vito wamegawanya carat moja katika vipande 100. Pointer moja ni sawa na miligram mbili. Kama almasi inazidi uzito wa karati 0.25 inaweza kuitwa jiwe la pointer 25. Kama ilivyotajwa hapo awali, kipimo cha carat ni muhimu sana linapokuja suala la kupima vipimo vya almasi. Bei ya almasi hutegemea rangi ya jiwe, umbo la kipande, na uzito wake katika karati. The Craze of Magic Sizes Kwa habari ya uzito wao wa karati, almasi pia huja katika "ukubwa wa kichawi". Kwa kawaida neno hilo hurejezea vipimo vya almasi vyenye vipimo vya karati vilivyo wazi. Kwa mfano, almasi zenye carat moja, nusu-carat, na hata tatu-quarter-carat huitwa ukubwa wa kichawi na zina bei ya juu kuliko sampuli za kawaida zenye ukubwa wa karati au pointer. Almasi zaweza kugharimu mamia ya maelfu ya dola na hata mamilioni. Bei yao yote inategemea vipande vyao, rangi, uwazi na uzito wao katika karati. Kwa sababu ya kuvutia kwa wapenzi wa vito vya thamani, ladha ya almasi ya karati moja inaweza kuwa ghali zaidi ya asilimia 20 kuliko ile ya karati 0.99. Ni muhimu kutaja hapa kwamba sampuli hizi zote mbili zinaonekana sawa katika vitu vya mapambo na hata mtaalam hawezi kuwaambia tofauti bila kupima uzito wao.