Best Certificate

[diamondjane]

Can anyone list all the certificates (and there are quite a few) to consider, in order of recognition, respectabliity, reliabilty, etc?

Thanks.

 

[Mara]

I don't know all of them, but I would suggest GIA and AGS as the top 2 with EGL, IGI etc following up. Though some tout EGL US as having a similar strictness to GIA, it's really about preference. GIA sets most of the standards for which stones are graded/judged by.

I wouldn't focus too much on the certificate, if you find a great stone, get it appraised at an independent appraiser and they can tell you if it matches the cert and probably many many things that the cert does not say anyway. Some people on here have also gotten great deals without certification, and just had the stone appraised for confirmation.

 

[Giangi]

Dear Jane,


It's a very hot topic and it has been discussed several times. You might want to do a search to find out a ton of infos

.
You'll find enclosed my PERSONAL opinions

1A HRD(Maybe I'm a little biased here as I live in Europe, but they are VERY consistent and nowdays even stricter than GIA)
1B AGS-GIA
2A PGS-IGI Antwerp
2B EGL LA
3A EGL NY
4A IGI USA-EGL Tel Aviv
99Z (

) EGL Antwerp

Giangi