Natural Yellow Diamonds

A trade term, not a grading term, for a yellow diamond of strong saturation — usually Fancy Intense or Fancy Vivid. No laboratory report will say "canary". If a seller uses the word, ask for the actual intensity grade.

Faint, Very Light and Light sit at the pale end, then Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid and Fancy Deep. Price rises steeply between Fancy and Fancy Vivid, and the visual difference between adjacent grades is often smaller than the price gap suggests — worth comparing in person.

Nitrogen in the crystal structure, absorbing blue light and leaving yellow. It is the most common coloring element in diamond, which is why yellow is the most available fancy color.

Considerably. Yellow gold amplifies the color and can make a Fancy Light stone read as fuller; white metal contrasts against it and makes the yellow look more distinct and saturated. Both are legitimate strategies and worth seeing before deciding.

A Z-grade white diamond has an unwanted tint measured on the D-to-Z scale. A fancy yellow is graded on a different scale entirely, for a color strong enough to be desirable in its own right. The boundary sits just past Z, and stones near it are graded carefully because the value difference is substantial.

Radiant and cushion concentrate color and are the usual choice. A round brilliant tends to disperse light in a way that makes the same rough look paler, which is why strongly colored yellows are rarely cut as rounds.