Another treatment - lasering - involves use of a laser beam to improve appearance of diamonds that have black inclusions or pots. A laser beam is aimed at inclusion. Acid is then forced through a tiny tunnel made by laser beam to remove inclusion. Lasering is permanent and a laser-drilled stone does not require special care.

While a laser-drilled diamond may appear as beautiful as a comparable untreated stone, it may not be as valuable. That’s because an untreated stone of same quality is rarer and therefore more valuable. Jewelers should tell you whether diamond you’re considering has been laser-drilled.

Imitation diamonds, such as cubic zirconia, resemble diamonds in appearance but are much less costly. Certain laboratory created gemstones, such as lab-created moissanite, also resemble diamonds and may not be adequately detected by instruments originally used to identify cubic zirconia. Ask your jeweler if he has current testing equipment to distinguish between diamonds and other lab-created stones. A diamond’s value is based on four criteria: color, cut, clarity, and carat. The clarity and color of a diamond usually are graded. However, scales are not uniform: a clarity grade of “slightly included” may represent a different grade on one grading system versus another, depending on terms used in scale. Make sure you know how a particular scale and grade represent color or clarity of diamond you’re considering. A diamond can be described as “flawless” only if it has no visible surface or internal imperfections when viewed under 10-power magnification by a skilled diamond grader.

Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if inside of item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in piece of jewelry still is determined by karat mark.

Jewelry can be plated with gold in a variety of ways. Gold plate refers to items that are either mechanically plated, electroplated, or plated by any other means with gold to a base metal. Eventually, gold plating wears away, but how soon will depend on how often item is worn and how thick plating is.

Gold-filled, gold overlay and rolled gold plate are terms used to describe jewelry that has a layer of at least 10 karat gold mechanically bonded to a base metal. If jewelry is marked with one of these terms, term or abbreviation should follow karat quality of gold used (for example, 14K Gold Overlay or 12K RGP). If layer of karat gold is less than 1/20th of total weight of item, any marking must state actual percentage of karat gold, such as 1/40 14K Gold Overlay.

Gold electroplate describes jewelry that has a layer (at least .175 microns thick) of a minimum of 10 karat gold deposited on a base metal by an electrolytic process. The terms gold flashed or gold washed describe products that have an extremely thin electroplating of gold (less than .175 microns thick). This will wear away more quickly than gold plate, gold-filled or gold electroplate.