Diamond Certification
PostBy Avi Paz Group At 19.09.2010
The higher a diamond's grade for cut, color, and clarity, the higher a price the stone will command. But while diamond trade experts can pull out a jeweler's loupe and look for themselves, lay consumers who might lack the expertise or the equipment are dependent on the honestly of retailers.
Diamond certification, which is growing increasingly sophisticated as new technology enters the diamond industry, provides consumer protection. Diamonds are sent to laboratories, which then conduct an in-depth grading and produce a detailed report on a given stone's specs.
New tools have expanded diamond laboratories' abilities to provide accurate information on diamonds. Depending on the resources available at a given lab, customers can receive a computerized mapping image of their diamonds – sometimes uploaded directly to the certificate itself. Laser inscription of identification numbers directly into a diamond's girdle has also become a popular practice, and that number is also recorded in the certificate.
Many companies offer diamond certification services, but two of the best-known are non-profit organizations that also perform other functions in the diamond and gemstone industry – the American Gem Society (AGS) and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).
The AGS provides a variety of different diamond grading reports, depending on the amount of information required on a specific stone. AGS uses the standard industry grades for clarity and a numeric 0-10 scale to grade color. Cut is assigned one of six grades, from AGS Ideal (a trademarked term) to Poor.
The GIA also issues different reports based on the customer's needs, which might or might not include a diagram of a diamond's inclusions and/or blemishes. The GIA does not grade synthetic diamonds or mounted diamonds. Unlike AGS, the GIA grades white diamonds' color using a letter scale – from D to Z, D being considered "colorless" while Z indicates a clearly visible yellow hue. Fancy colored diamonds are graded using a different GIA scale, which also describes the color's saturation and overtones, for example "Fancy Vivid Yellow."
