Diamond grading

[rpyne]

Need advice asap please! Purchased a 2 carat diamond princess cut E vs2 on Sat. Received a EGL (not EGL USA). diagram shows a v shaped inclusion and 6 other inclusions. Under 15X the v shape looked like a strand of hair. All inclusions are black. Do you believe this is actually a vs2. Am I being taken advantage of here? How many inclusions and what size are considered vs2? Need your help. Thanks so much

 

[oldminer]

Could be a VS2, could be VS1, SI1 or SI2. No one can possibly advise you the clarity based on a verbal desription. Even assessing clarity by a plot is not likely to be accurate. An expert must examine the diamond.

Are the marks visible to your naked eye?
Is it the diamond you chose?
What is worrying you? The clarity or the VS2 lettering?
What difference would it make to you if it was SI1 in someone else's opinion? The stone won't be different?

Lots of questions here and nbearly all of them should have been asked and answered in advance of buying any diamond.

 

[rpyne]

Mr. Atlas, You are absolutely right. I thought I had done all the right research - but clearly I didn't. I was under the impression that an EGL certification with gradings validated what you were getting. But I came home and conducted additional research on line and read somewhere that EGL Europe may have lower standards than the GIA or EGL USA. I also looked at the clarity diagrams and never saw anything that looked like a fine line in the VS1-VS2 - they all looked like pinpoints and were few (4 or so) in number. It was just over $13,000. I was trying to compare apples with apples by looking at E color, 2 carat VS1 and VS2, with similar measurements in the table and depth.

Any comments on the GIA versus the EGL Europe certification?

 

[valeria101]

You will find a few dozen threads here saying that EGL-non US is somewhat less strict. And a couple of threads saying that NO cert is accurate down to less than one grade... and that the discount on EGL's stones already more than accounts for whatever bias.

Grading would be done at 10X - since you are talking about what it shows at even more magnification... it would be hard to tell what clarity grade would satisfy srutiny at more than the standard magnification. And no, it is not true that VS stones only contain invisible pinpoints or only colorless inclusions, or that are all eye clean.

Bottom line: if those inclusions bother you it ain't good, but this does not mean that the stone is missgraded according to the lab's practice. Grades awarded by different labs may not be totally equivalent either, even if one may expect them to be. Since only one case is of interest here (as oposed to the vastly more complicated task to asess concordance between labs) I would think you may want the opinion of an appraiser about the stone itself - something that can only be done with diamond in hand. Would a second opinion on the grade do any good?

As for the price, at least among the few hundred quotes for such stones you may get around here, this one seems right - one would expect a discount relative to GIA certified pieces, and it definitely sows. The detail of cut woudl also influence price - and not knowing what your stone is like, no further comment.


Just my 0.2, of course

 

[biz_gravy]

TOTALLY OFF TOPIC

Valeria101: wouldn't 0.2 be twenty cents, HA....sorry, but this forum makes me analyze EVERYTHING too much.

 

[hoorray]

If it really is bothering you, why don't you get an independent appraiser to look at the stone for you and give you their opinion of the stone's grading and value. And, I would think about OldMiner's question of what is really bothering you? Is it how the stone looks to you, or is it a question of did you pay a fair price? The appraisal can help in the second case, but not the first.

 

[marriahlyn]

I have a diamond that was graded D SI2 by EGL Israel......I had it recut to an Eightstar then sent to GIA and it was harshly graded F I2...although it's gorgeoes with only minimal white inclusions hardly visible to the eye, it is what it is.