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Answering Questions About Diamond Certification

What does diamond certification mean to me, the buyer?

A diamond is a major purchase, so it’s important to know you’re buying quality. Buying a diamond that has been certified insures that the diamond is authentic and meets certain quality standards.

 

What to look for in a diamond’s certification:

Who has certified the diamond? Know who has certified the diamond and make sure you understand how that company certifies their diamonds. What grading scales do they use? Not all certifiers use the same scales to grade their diamonds. A number or letter grade that is good on one scale may be bad on another. Once you know what grading scales are being used on certified diamonds, check to see where the diamond is ranked on those scales.  Look how the diamond is scored in each of the FOUR C’s. Based on what you know about the four C’s you should be able to understand what quality of diamond you are looking at!

 

Who does diamond certification, anyways?

Diamond certifiers are organizations that provide grading services to jewelers and diamond wholesalers. They do not mine or sell diamonds. While there are many, GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and EGL (European Gemological Laboratory) are two of the highest reputed diamond certifiers.

 

GIA has its headquarters in Carlsbad, California. It has a total of 14 other locations: New York, London, Moscow, Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Mumbai, Gaborone, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, and Bangkok.

These locations function as schools, laboratories, research facilities, and lab take-ins, while many of them work as two or more of these things.

 

EGL has 9 locations: New York, Los Angles, Belgium, South America, France, Israel, Great Britain, South Korea, and Canada.

Each of the locations works as a separate company, therefore competing with one another. It is widely accepted that not all EGL certifications are of equal quality. Los Angeles and New York’s certificates are said to be the best.

 

So which is better—GIA or EGL?

This topic is highly debated.

GIA diamonds cost more than EGL diamonds. Because of this, many jewelers hold that GIA certified diamonds are of a higher quality than EGL diamonds, even though the diamond may be graded equally. For example: a one carat, high quality diamond may cost $4,000 if graded by GIA, but a seemingly identical diamond will cost only $3,000 with an EGL certification.

Is there really any difference between the two certified diamonds then? Perhaps not. Diamonds become more expensive when they are certified. When buying a diamond, it is probably smarter to save the $1,000 if the diamond has the same appearance. The extra $1,000 may be buying the certification, but not extra quality.

For the same reason, do not rule out looking at diamonds that have been graded by other certifiers. There are hundreds of certifiers in the market, and even though these two are highly esteemed, by no means does this mean that the others are not to be trusted.

Some other reputable diamond certifiers include: HRD (Hoge Raad voor Diamant—which is English for ‘Diamond High Council’.), IGI (Diamond Gemological Institute), and AGS (American Gem Society).

 

So how do they do it?

Diamond grading generally follows this process:

The diamond is sent from a jeweler or wholesaler to a diamond certifier lab.

  1. At the lab, the diamond is examined in specially made environments and with special tools to inspect the weight (carat), color, clarity, and cut of the diamond.
  2. The diamond is graded based on the results of the examinations. Many people examine each diamond, making sure that there is consent amongst them before a diamond is graded. There is NO MACHINE that can grade a diamond. It has to be done by people, and is therefore somewhat subjective.
  3. The diamond is then shipped back to the owner with a certificate showing proof of the authenticity and quality of the diamond.

 

**When it comes down to it, the best way to understand any diamond’s certification and grading is to know what each of the grades mean, which requires a knowledge of the four C’s.