Advice needed- non certified ring

[Snappy]

My wife recently lost her engagement ring. We have been looking for a replacement stone...a 2 carat round stone that is E-G in color and a clean SI2 with lots of brilliance and fire. Unfortunatly we have had difficulty finding a stone that meets this criteria in our price range. We are nervous to buy off the internet because we want an eye clean stone and many SI1s and SI2s are not eye clean. We don''t want to see a hint on an inclusion.

We recently came across a stone from our insurance company''s jeweler that we really like and it is very well priced. (we have been looking at other jewelers as well) The stone scored a 2.6 on the HCA and is very brilliant. However it is not certed. The specs are this:
2 carat E SI 2
depth- 61%
table 58.5%
pavillion of 29 degrees
crown of 42.1 degrees.
The stone is clean to the naked eye. We compared the non certed ring to GIA stones that were E, F and G in color and the non certed E looked the whitest. We know the pavillion angle is low according to GIA standards. However that is what giving the stone the brilliance and sparkle.

The jeweler said we could send it to GIA for certification. However it will take 5-6 weeks and my wife does not want to wait that long. Is this a mistake?Any thoughts or advice? Should we take it to an independent appraiser instead? Help!

 

[hoorray]

Take it to an independent appraiser at a minimum. My theory is that a cert is very useful in the buying and selling process, but after the stone is purchased it won't really buy you anything that a high quality independent appraisal will give you, unless you think you will want to sell or trade-in this stone in the future. If you think you will do that, get the cert. These days the trade doesn't seem to want to deal with uncerted stones from individuals. Others may disagree with my theory -- I'd be interested in hearing a different perspective.

With or without the cert, you should get the appraisal.

 

[Snappy]

Thanks. This is helpful.
Is a score of 2.6 on the HCA good? Do you think there is a noticable difference between a score of 2.6 and a score under 2 on the HCA?

 

[pqcollectibles]

An HCA score of 2.6 is pretty good, provided you used crown and pavillion angles and not percentages. The HCA is much more accurate when angles are used. If you used percents the true score will be higher, maybe as much as double the percent score.

 

[Giangi]

Something is wrong here. It CANNOT have a 29' pavilion. It would be worse than fish eyed. Is it the opposite, 29' crown and 42.1' pavilion??

 

[valeria101]

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On 2/2/2004 8:24:55 PM Snappy wrote:



... We compared the non certed ring to GIA stones that were E, F and G in color and the non certed E looked the whitest. [...]
The jeweler said we could send it to GIA for certification. However it will take 5-6 weeks and my wife does not want to wait that long. Is this a mistake? Any thoughts or advice? Should we take it to an independent appraiser instead? Help!----------------

No way! "Grading" the color of a mounted stone against a "benchmark" and claiming it is an E? Surely the conditions were nowhere near appropriate for grading diamond color either... No way! There is a serious premium on this grade, and for all I know it could be anything until K given the description of that 'color comparison" exercise. Of course, it could well be a D-color too. There is just no way to know. Unless you feel comfortable paying the same sum for a I-SI3 instead of a E-SI2, at least an independent appraisal is a must. It would be best if either the appraisal or certification is done on the loose diamond, otherwise you are likely to end up with split grades (like say E-F, Si1-SI2), but it's a start.

I would totally understand why someone would skip certification on some inexpensive jewel, but this does not seem to be the case. No idea why certifications would take so long (it could be so, or not) but a trip to an appraiser may be rather fast and an absolute must, if I may say so...

 

[fire&ice]

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On 2/3/2004 8:18:12 AM Giangi wrote:

Something is wrong here. It CANNOT have a 29' pavilion. It would be worse than fish eyed. Is it the opposite, 29' crown and 42.1' pavilion??

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Yeah, this makes no sense, to me at least. How were this crown & pav. measurement arrived at?