What is a carat weight?

The more carats – the better.

It is not a secret, that carat weight is for the mass of diamonds or other gemstones. More specifically, it is a measure, which equals to 1/5 of a gram, or 200 mg.

Do not confuse the following terms: a «carat» refers the precious stones, while «karat» is for the purity of gold.

History

Long time ago, merchants used carob seeds as a way of weighting gems. They believed that all seeds weighed precisely the same.

Obviously, this assumption turned out to be false. But by that time, the name «carat», which goes back to the Greek word for «carob seed», was deeply rooted in our language.

Until the 1500s, merchants used carats to weigh gold. Then, in the 1570s, diamond and gemstone merchants adopted the measurement for stones.

However, only in 1907, the Fourth General Conference on Weights and Measurements officially adopted the carat and established its weight equal to 200 mg.

Carat stands as the industry standard to this day.

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