Need help valuing stolen rings with only old appraisal

[heidi48103]

A relative of mine passed away in a hospital recently and her diamond rings were stolen or misplaced in the hospital after she died and never returned to the family. I'm the personal representative of her estate so I have a duty to put a value on them and try to recover the loss. She did not have any insurance. She was married in 1960 and had a while gold and diamond engagement/wedding ring set with one larger diamond and lots of tiny sparkles. I found an appraisal from 1960 that says the gold was 14k white gold and the diamonds weighed 1.00 ct total weight. I found a chart with the average gold prices per year, but what about diamonds? Have small diamonds increased in price since 1960? She also had a second white gold and diamond ring purchase in 1981 for $923. It was sparkly but had no large diamonds. The company listed on the sales receipt is no longer in business. Please help me figure out how I should estimate the current value of these rings.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

It depends on the size (and quality) of the diamonds. You can find used rings with tiny diamonds in the low hundreds of dollars on ebay right now. A five stone diamond ring at one carat is going to have more value than one with 20 small stones, assuming equal quality. Total weight isn't going to help much unless it identifies the weight of the engagement ring diamond.

I think you'd need two things to help you get help on a value. You'd need photos of the rings and the complete description of them on the old appraisals. We maybe could help you find some comps on ebay, too.

I am very sorry for the loss of your family member. Let us know if we can help you further.

 

[denverappraiser]

Find a professional appraiser. There's a list of them under the 'resources' tab at the top of the page. This is a more common type of appraisal than you might think but a jewelry store appraiser is unlikely to be familiar with it. Talk to a pro, not someone who is doing 'appraisals' as a sideline.

This is especially true if this is an estate tax matter, there is a charitable contribution involved, there is a criminal proceeding, or if the estate is in any way contentious.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Find a professional appraiser. There's a list of them under the 'resources' tab at the top of the page. This is a more common type of appraisal than you might think but a jewelry store appraiser is unlikely to be familiar with it. Talk to a pro, not someone who is doing 'appraisals' as a sideline.

This is especially true if this is an estate tax matter, there is a charitable contribution involved, there is a criminal proceeding, or if the estate is in any way contentious.

I was wondering if an appraiser would be able to give value on something that they could not physically see. Would you be able to do that if there were no pictures of the rings and only a vague description, Neil?

 

[denverappraiser]

We make what are called ‘critical assumptions’. Sometimes there are a lot of them, sometimes there are just a few. They can be as simple and fundamental as the fact the item existed at all to details like the count and grades of the stones, styles of manufacturing, grades of the materials used and so on. A critical assumption is an unsupported 'fact' that, if found false, would invalidate the conclusion.

It’s a post-loss evaluation. It's more common than you might think for a variety of reasons. There’s a bit of an art form to using whatever data you have that may be conflicting or may have varying degrees of reliability, and then making reasonable assumptions about things you don’t. The report itself is then another tricky problem. You need to write in a clear way about what you know, where you got it, what you estimated, and on what you based those estimates. As with all appraisals, there’s also an issue here involving definitions of value. Estate distributions, courts, tax collectors and others use different definitions that it can make for very large differences in the value conclusion.

 

[Modified Brilliant]

The term "hypothetical appraisal" may also be used by an appraiser but the term may not be entirely accurate. As Neil correctly stated, there are various components, so check with a professional.