Advice on AGS0 Princess Cut

[edbud]

I think that I''ve decided that to purchase an AGS 0, princess cut after reading some of the info on pricescope. We have personally seen a handful at Jared''s (their peerless diamonds) and they do look much better than any we have looked at. I thought they looked much better than what they call their "Leo" diamonds. My budget is under $4,000 and I''m looking to get the best size/quality for my $, as I''m sure everyone would.

Here are the selections I''ve found. I''m not certain what constitutes a better idealscope image for a princess cut:

http://www.whiteflash.com/diamonds/Compare_Diamonds.aspx?idnos=114373,34901,34902,114371#

I also found this AGS 1 and was intrigued by this diamond. How much of a difference is there between an AGS 0 and AGS 1 ?

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/2393/

Any suggestions, comments, or additional diamonds to consider would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for any help!

Eddie

 

[JulieN]

Many different looks are possible under AGS grading, so you can''t say for sure how a 0 will look different from a 1. Cursory look only, but the GOG stone gets dinged on polish, which is nothing to worry about.

 

[edbud]

Does anyone else have advice in my search for a perfect diamond for my sweetie? I want to get her the best I can afford

Thanks again...

 

[criadilla]

Hi, please take my "advice" with several grains of salt since I am by no means an expert. I''m pretty much in your situation, looking for a nice princess stone, specifically an AGS 0 since I feel the cut grade gives me a little bit of a security blanket. Anyway, I''m sure we have read most of the same articles but two things come to mind here:

1) I''ve seen a lot of people talk about the tendency for princess cuts to lose light in the corners. Looking at the idealscope pics, I believe that''s what the white lines you''ll see in the corners are. Also along that line of thought, the third diamond on your compare page (from the left) has a few facets on the right side that are completely white, which I believe means they''re not reflecting light back very well (or at all). However, I think this could be due to the way the diamond is tilted in the pic. So based only on my interpretation of the idealscope pics, I''d go for the E VS2 in your comparison. It has a few more inclusions than the others, but not all of them are under the table. Without (my untrained eyes) seeing it in person, I think you''re fine with this one.

2) About AGS 1 versus AGS 0: One of the experts on this board, I can''t remember his name but he''s the diamond cutter for Infinity, I believe in Belgium, wrote a series of 3 articles about cutting to the new AGS 0 standards. Very informative, and I''d recommend reading it if you haven''t. It''s in the diamond journal portion of the pricescope site. Anyway, he mentioned that several people he interviewed seemed to actually prefer the look of princess stones that graded a 1 on light performance as opposed to 0 (making their overall grade an AGS 1). Therefore his company will be selling AGS 0 and AGS 1 princess if the grade of 1 results from a 1 on light performance. So to me, that means an expert in the field is saying that a grade of 1 (instead of 0) on light performance is not a big deal and it comes down to personal preferance. That''s not necessarily to say that the rock on GOG isn''t worth buying because its 1 came from finish; I''m sure that it is lovely and as far as I am aware that company is recognized (at least on this board) as a highly reputable source for great diamonds, and probably other products too.

I''ve looked at some princess stones at my local Jared as well and I agree that the Leo cut isn''t the most impressive thing in the world when put up against a stone cut to the AGS 0 standard. But then again, how often are you going to grab your fiance''s hand and compare her rock side by side to someone else''s? Not very often, I hope. I''m guessing here, but if you''re like me at all, you just want the personal knowledge that you''re getting the absolute best stone you can for your money because your GF deserves nothing less. And to that end, I think you''d be wise not to rack your brain too much at this point and just pick one of the final four that you have shown us here. You''ve done your homework (and as you know there is much less info out there about the princess shape than the RB) and I think you''ll be fine with any of those four stones. Good luck, and I hope this was helpful.

Also, if any of the experts on the board want to chime in, I know I''d find their knowledge and opinions to be very helpful in my own search.

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

Date: 10/3/2006 11:08:18 AM
Author: criadilla
2) About AGS 1 versus AGS 0: One of the experts on this board, I can''t remember his name but he''s the diamond cutter for Infinity, I believe in Belgium, wrote a series of 3 articles about cutting to the new AGS 0 standards. Very informative, and I''d recommend reading it if you haven''t. It''s in the diamond journal portion of the pricescope site. Anyway, he mentioned that several people he interviewed seemed to actually prefer the look of princess stones that graded a 1 on light performance as opposed to 0 (making their overall grade an AGS 1). Therefore his company will be selling AGS 0 and AGS 1 princess if the grade of 1 results from a 1 on light performance. So to me, that means an expert in the field is saying that a grade of 1 (instead of 0) on light performance is not a big deal and it comes down to personal preferance. That''s not necessarily to say that the rock on GOG isn''t worth buying because its 1 came from finish; I''m sure that it is lovely and as far as I am aware that company is recognized (at least on this board) as a highly reputable source for great diamonds, and probably other products too.

Sometimes, words of the past can be mis-interpreted if read today, especially if one does not take into account the context of the days when the words were written.

In this case, it seems that I will have to write a new article about AGS-princesses, one year (and a bit more) after.

You are refering to an article, in which we described our experience, while we probably were one of the first cutters in the world trying out the new AGS-grade for princess-cuts. I still remember Peter Yantzer (president of AGS) asking me why in earth we had chosen proportion-combinations in our first batch of production, which were really at the borderline of AGS-0. I explained him that by aiming for the border-line, we hoped to gain a lot more experience about the grade itself, as well as about the probable maximum in light performance around some border-area.

In any case, in our first batch of production, we indeed have a stone which obtained a 1 on light performance, while many observers actually prefered that specific stone in the batch.

However, in the past months, the situation has changed somewhat. When we were writing the abovementioned article, AGS was ready to only grade princess-cuts with 2 chevron-facets. In the meantime, the system has evolved in a possibility of grading multiple chevron-facet-arrangements. I still think that in most sizes, 2 chevron-facets definitely are sufficient, and give a very bold and strong look and light performance to the stone. However, in that case, all needs to be cut to ultimate precision.

Also, in grading more rectangular shapes of princess-cuts, AGS has gained more experience.

With all this, I might be mislead, but I have the distinct impression that AGS-grading of light performance is now less strict than it was, when we cut our first batch, even before the official grading-document was available. In that way, I suppose that what was graded 1 in our first batch, would now easily be a 0 in the current grading-policy.

In any case, all this has no effect on the original stones of the thread. I see that the GOG-stone has 0 light performance, and is graded 1 only because of polish. That is absolutely nothing to worry about. Once you have chosen for the grade of Ideal-light performance, you really need to see the stones, in order to know which one speaks to you.

Live long,