Top Wesselton – The "Old Terms" for the color scale of diamonds
The term Top Wesselton is an Old Terms designation for the color of diamonds. Top Wesselton describes diamonds with the second best color, so-called fine white. Today the usual designations for this are F (fine white +) or G (fine white).
The so-called “Old Terms” (also called the yellow series) were introduced in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century and the different colour grades were given their names based on the places of origin of the diamonds coloured in this way.
The term Top Wesselton is rarely used nowadays, for example in Scandinavia.
Diamond rings in color quality G – fine white
0.25 carats
G | VS
approx. €1,530
0.50 carats
G | VS
approx. € 3,165
1.00 carat
G | VS
approx. € 11,195
International scale for the color grading of diamonds and their clarity grading
Top Wesselton – Origin and Meaning
The term Top Wesselton was introduced in reference to a diamond mine named Wesselton, in which particularly large numbers of fine white diamonds were found.
The mine itself is named after JJ Wessels Senior, the owner of the Benaaudheidfonein farm, where the Wesselton Mine originated in 1890. It is located in South Africa near the border between the Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony. In 1891, the mine was taken over by the De Beers diamond company. The diamonds from the Wesselton Mine, which was closed in 2005, are characterized by their exceptionally good quality and their almost complete absence of inclusions .
Top Wesselton compared to River and Wesselton
On the colour scale, Top Wesselton is immediately after the quality classification River (colour grades D and E), which indicates "very fine white" and is at the top of the scale. This is therefore the only colour category that is even purer and clearer than Top Wesselton.
Top Wesselton – barely distinguishable from river with the naked eye – is also extremely transparent and completely colorless. Wesselton – the next category – also appears colorless to laypeople, only experts can see a minimal color content. Wesselton diamonds (color grade H) are still very rare and also have a very attractive price/performance ratio.
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