Carat is the internationally recognised unit for measuring the weight of gemstones.
Carat weight started with the carob seed, when early gem traders used the small, uniform seeds as counterweights in their balance scales. Today, the carat is the same milligram weight in every corner of the world.
A metric“carat”is defined as 200 milligrams. Each carat is subdivided into 100‘points.’This allows very precise measurements to the hundredth decimal place. A jeweler may describe the weight of a diamond below one carat by its‘points’ alone. For instance, the jeweler may refer to a diamond that weighs 0.25 carats as a‘twenty-five pointer.’Diamond weights greater than one carat are expressed in carats and decimals.
