GIA H&A Inscription

[reddie]

Hi!

I have a question to ask which I''m sure many of you in this forum will enlighten me.

I saw a GIA certificate that has "H&A" under the comments section. I thought that GIA does not certify "Hearts and Arrows" on diamonds so is this for real? If this is a genuine certificate, then on what basis will GIA certify a diamond to be "H&A"? The diamond has the following inscripton "H&A gia_cert_number" too!

Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

Cheerio,
John

 

[esqknight]

Hi John,

The only signifiance of the notation in the comment section is GIA reporting what is inscribed on the girdle, nothing more. "H&R [certificate number]" is apparently incribed on the girdle and that is what the comment means. Same thing for similar comments on a AGS certificate.

Hope that helps.

Eric

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

they could write "This diamond will make you love me"
And it might not be true

 

[JohnQuixote]

(unless it's Garry's 15 ct diamond)

 

[reddie]

Thanks for all your help.

Just realised that this is pretty much just a marketing plot then... GIA should prevent this from happening! ie: they should be careful about inscribing words such as "h&a" on diamonds less they are truly H&A - it is the same for reserving certain domain names on the internet.

Anyhow, am sure wondering how could I possibly know if a diamond is truly a hearts and arrows if I were to purchase on from online stores? Excellent in Symmetry and Polish? Tough choice indeed since inscription does not help and I don''t get to see the diamond personally. Digital photos does not really help too.

 

[DiamondExpert]

GIA may or may not have had anything to do with actually inscribing the girdle, and they are just reporting what is inscribed there.

As for not being able to "see" the stone - of course you can - have it sent to an independent appraiser near you prior to payment, or have it sent directly to you post-payment...you should still have plenty of time to have the stone in hand to decide if it''s the one you want, and if not, return it for a refund.

If your vendor won''t allow you to do these things, you''re working with the wrong type of company in my opinion.

 

[niceice]

style="WIDTH: 99%; HEIGHT: 144px">Date: 3/19/2005 9:20:54 AM
Author: reddie
Thanks for all your help.

Just realised that this is pretty much just a marketing plot then... GIA should prevent this from happening! ie: they should be careful about inscribing words such as ''h&a'' on diamonds less they are truly H&A - it is the same for reserving certain domain names on the internet.

Anyhow, am sure wondering how could I possibly know if a diamond is truly a hearts and arrows if I were to purchase on from online stores? Excellent in Symmetry and Polish? Tough choice indeed since inscription does not help and I don''t get to see the diamond personally. Digital photos does not really help too.

GIA is only indicating the presence of the inscription. Several cutting houses inscribe their diamonds with H&A prior to sending the diamond to the labs for grading because they know that the lab will then have to indicate the inscription on the comments section of the lab report and that will lead people to assume that the GIA is indicating that the diamond exhibits a pattern of hearts and arrows. There really isn''t very much that the GIA can do about it other than mention it, but it is frustrating.

Anyway about determining the extent of the pattern... The first step is to ask the vendor to provide you with photographs of the pattern that are specific to the diamonds being considered... If the pictures look good, have the diamond sent to an independent appraiser as Gary recommended.