{"id":10422,"date":"2020-06-20T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/?p=10422"},"modified":"2020-06-20T08:48:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T12:48:21","slug":"what-is-pique-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/what-is-pique-clarity\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT IS PIQUE CLARITY?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"What<\/div>\n

P1, P2 and P3?<\/h2>\n

\nPiqu\u00e9 clarity<\/strong> (often abbreviated as P, or PK in Europe) is a pretty common clarity grade. <\/p>\n

\nIn fact, Piqu\u00e9 clarity is one of the largest clarity grades there is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n(And no, it doesn’t stand for soccer player<\/strong> Gerard Piqu\u00e9<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

\nPiqu\u00e9 clarity is made up of 3 clarity grades<\/strong>: P1, P2 and P3.<\/p>\n

So what is Piqu\u00e9 clarity?<\/h2>\n

\nP clarity<\/strong>, or Piqu\u00e9 clarity<\/strong>, is the European term for “imperfect<\/strong>“. It’s actually a French name meaning “mark<\/strong>“, “blemish<\/strong>“, or “pricked<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

\nAnd that’s because in Piqu\u00e9 clarity, these marks or blemishes (inclusions), are visible. <\/strong>Visible to the bare eye, without the use of a microscope<\/a> or a 10x jeweler’s loupe<\/a>. You can see the flaws just by looking at the diamond, and often, these flaws and imperfections are huge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3 Piqu\u00e9 clarity grades<\/h2>\n

\nThere are 3 clarity grades in all with Piqu\u00e9: P1 (Piqu\u00e9 1<\/strong>, or 1st Piqu\u00e9), P2 (Piqu\u00e9 2<\/strong>, or 2nd Piqu\u00e9), and P3 (Piqu\u00e9 3<\/strong>, or 3rd Piqu\u00e9)…<\/p>\n

\nP1 is the highest of the bunch, then P2, followed by P3 at the bottom of the bucket<\/strong> (P3 is the lowest clarity grade there is).<\/p>\n

\nPiqu\u00e9 is the equivalent to GIA’s “I clarity range<\/strong>“, which is I1, I2 and I3.<\/p>\n

\nPiqu\u00e9 is used in just about every country, even the US. But since GIA devised the standards for grading diamonds<\/strong> (the 4 C’s<\/a>), and they called this lowest clarity range “included<\/strong>” or “imperfect<\/strong>“, that’s what is common in the states, and that’s what most people know and use.<\/p>\n

\nYou will still see “Piqu\u00e9<\/strong>” sold in stores today if you look hard enough. It all depends on the actual grading report that came with the stone. <\/p>\n

Compare Piqu\u00e9 to GIA<\/h2>\n

\nTake a look at how Piqu\u00e9 compares to the GIA grading scale<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

\"Pique<\/p>\n

Included clarities:<\/h2>\n

\nYou see, Piqu\u00e9 really does line up perfectly with the “included clarities<\/strong>” of I1, I2 and I3.<\/p>\n

\nCertification companies that use Piqu\u00e9 are the Scandinavian diamond nomenclature (Scan D.N.<\/strong>), the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO<\/strong>), which includes the following nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA… and lastly, the Hoge Raad voor Diamant, the Diamond High Council of Belgium (HRD<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\nMany times online stores or even store’s catalogs will list the term Piqu\u00e9 or PI, PII, or PIII. And as long as you know that it means “included<\/strong>“, and that you will see eye-visible flaws and inclusions in the stone, then you won’t be surprised when you suddenly notice a huge black mark in the stone<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\nPiqu\u00e9, as well as I clarity, is the lowest grades that diamonds can get before they veer off and become “industrial<\/strong>” diamonds.<\/p>\n

You will see flaws.<\/h2>\n

\nYou will see flaws and things like: lines, cracks, clouds, pinpoints, fractures, nicks, chips and black spots. That’s just the nature of included or Piqu\u00e9 diamonds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nI would suspect that some jewelers in the states take advantage<\/strong> of this not so commonly used Piqu\u00e9 clarity grade. Piqu\u00e9 sounds better than included.<\/strong> And what people don’t know, won’t hurt them, right?<\/p>\n

\nBut now you know.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nKeep your eye out for P, Piqu\u00e9, P1, P2, P3, PI, PII, or PIII<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

\nThey’re pretty easy to spot, once you know what to look for…<\/p>\n

FLAWS!<\/h2>\n

\nIf you don’t mind some visible flaws, and want to save a ton of money<\/strong>, check out these I1 included diamonds here<\/a>. Some stones look way better than others.<\/p>\n

\nCheers! :P<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P1, P2 and P3? Piqu\u00e9 clarity (often abbreviated as P, or PK in Europe) is a pretty common clarity grade. In fact, Piqu\u00e9 clarity is one of the largest clarity grades there is. (And no, [Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7,29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-certification","category-clarity","category-diamond-guide","category-diamonds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}