Date: 2/17/2007 10:03:46 PM
Author: blingless
One of my favorite things to do is visit jewelry stores and look at their diamonds. My wife has a D and an H that she wears all the time and I use them as a refernece when I'm out looking. I know my wife's stones are properly graded because they were graded by GIA and checked by and independent appraiser. Many of the stones I see in stores are misgraded. There is a fair amount of documentation that indicates that mounting a stone will make it look possibly one color grade higher than when unmounted. In my observations (I am as novice as you could find) I can't tell the difference between a properly graded G and my wife's mounted H when I hold them next to each other. However roughly half of what I look at graded H in B&M stores looks noticably yellow next to my wife's H. My conclusion is that unless the stone is GIA H there is probably a chance that it is actually two levels lower than stated. This could just be in my area of the country but GIA is the rule for me. I can see the differnece between D and H very easily especially with a reference stone. To my eyes a two grade difference in any direction is noticable but to my wife everything above I looks the same. I would say that unless they are next to each other in a setting, a properly cut and graded G and H would be very hard to differenciate. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be consistent grading in uncertified stones. Two cents from a total amature.....
Date: 2/18/2007 12:17:12 AM
Author: curiopotter
I tend to like AGS0 gradings better than GIA. I feel they''re more strict and the data is better.