When I had my recent purchase appraised yesterday there were a few discrepancies with the GIA cert. I used Patrick Davis in LA who was an excellent educator and spent almost two hours with me examining the diamond. He did not look at the GIA cert before the appraisal.
The discrepancies were
1. Clarity: GIA cert was VS-1, Patrick says it’s VVS1 (only one inclusion found under a bezel facet. This matches the plot on the cert. We looked and looked and couldn’t find anything else.
2. Fluorescence: GIA cert was Strong and Patrick thought it was more Medium blue. This is an E colored diamond. Patrick did say that he noticed a slight change in the light refraction under certain light conditions due to the fluorescence. He said it was like Los Angles on a hazy day. He however only said this after putting it up against a black light and determining it had fluorescence. Beforehand he never mentioned it. He said that all fluorescent diamonds have this and this is why they are discounted. I couldn’t see the change in refraction he was referring to and I have a keen eye. Is this something to be concerned about – EXPERTS PLEASE WEIGH IN HERE
Unfortunately his Sarin machine is out for repair so I couldn’t get the actual, non rounded numbers of the stone. He manually checked the crown angle and it fell in line with the cert which was 33.5 degree CA with a PA of 41.0. He verified the cut and said it had perfect H&A and was extremely well cut. He noted “slight” table leakage under the ideal scope, not the ASET, and didn’t think this was anything to worry about or anything eye visible.
Questions:
1. Can GIA really be off two clarity grades?
2. Does fluorescence affect the light refraction in a diamond even if it doesn’t look milky?
3. What do you think about the comment regarding light leakage under the table? Can anyone model a 33.5 CA, 41.0 PA, T=57%, Depth 61.2%
Sorry for the long message and TIA.
DK