Verdict and D–Z Grade

What the verdict of a result card means, how Cutwise reaches it from two grades, and how to read the DZ Grade with its warnings.

Cutwise estimates a grade for every diamond on two scales, the D–Z scale and the fancy color scale. Only one of the two answers applies to a given diamond. The verdict says which one.

Verdict

The verdict sits next to the card title. All three verdicts look the same, so read the words.

Verdict Meaning What to do with it
Confident DZ the diamond is on the normal D–Z color scale read the DZ Grade
Confident Fancy Color the diamond has a fancy color read the Fancy Grade
Borderline a lab could grade the diamond either way. It will probably get a D–Z grade, but it may come back as a fancy color treat the rough diamond as a candidate for a spectrometer measurement

A confident verdict means the two grades do not contradict each other. You can use it for the decisions about the rough diamond: whether to buy it and which line to send it to. A lab could grade a Borderline diamond either way. It will probably get a D–Z grade, but it may come back as a fancy color. This is the rough diamond worth a spectrometer measurement.

The card shows both grades whatever the verdict. A Confident Fancy Color card still shows a D–Z letter, such as U.3, but the Fancy Grade applies.

How Cutwise reaches the verdict

  1. A diamond graded D through J is D–Z. The fancy grade is not consulted.
  2. For a diamond graded K or lower (K to Z, or beyond Z), or with no D–Z grade, Cutwise consults the fancy grade. A diamond it places in a fancy grade (Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Dark or Fancy Deep) is Fancy.
  3. A diamond the fancy grader calls dull or colorless stays D–Z when its D–Z letter is meaningful.
  4. When the D–Z letter is not meaningful either, the diamond is Borderline.

The D–Z letter is not meaningful in two cases:

  • the color is beyond the end of the scale, past Z. The card shows Beyond the D-Z scale.
  • the color is outside the yellow range, and the fancy grader found a color in the diamond. The card shows the Not a yellowish stone warning.

When the fancy grader calls a diamond with the warning dull or colorless, the warning stays on the card but the letter still counts, so the diamond remains D–Z.

A diamond that neither grader can classify fails. Its card is not shown.

Cutwise sets the cut-off grade at K. It is a setting and can change.

DZ Grade

The DZ Grade row shows the D–Z letter and a digit after a dot, such as U.3. The digit places the diamond inside that letter, from .0 at its pale end to .9 next to the following letter. On the D–Z scale of a diamond page, the Autograde O.8 puts the dot at 80% of the O segment, close to P.

The D–Z scale is the ordinary diamond color scale, from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow or brown). For now, the D–Z estimate is reliable only for yellowish diamonds. Cutwise tunes its D–Z model for them. A blue, pink or green diamond has no meaningful place on the scale.

Row shows Meaning What to do
a letter with a digit, such as U.3 the D–Z grade of the diamond use it when the verdict is Confident DZ
Beyond the D-Z scale the color is more saturated than Z read the Fancy Grade instead
— the D–Z grade was not calculated read the verdict and the Fancy Grade

Not a yellowish diamond

Under the grade, the row can show this warning with a help icon:

Not a yellowish stone — the estimate is approximate

The help icon reads:

Our color model is tuned for yellowish diamonds. For brown, grey, pink and other tints we can only give a rough guess for now, so the estimate may be inaccurate or missing.

The warning means the color is outside the yellow range the D–Z model is tuned for. Unless the fancy grader finds no color in the diamond, Cutwise does not use the letter for the verdict.

Next

Fancy Grade.