GIA report - Inclusions in Natural, Synthetic, and Treated Diamond

[OoohShiny]

I stumbled on this via a link from another article (I can't remember which now!) - I thought it was pretty cool, some great pictures of unusual inclusions in diamonds

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winter-2018-inclusions-natural-synthetic-treated-diamond

 

[Sakuramickey]

This may be a silly question does GIA issues certificate for synthetic diamonds?

 

[OoohShiny]

This may be a silly question does GIA issues certificate for synthetic diamonds?

They don't issue a 'proper' grading report with as much detail as a Mined diamond report (i.e. exact colour grades etc.) at this moment in time, but they might in the future??

IGI, EGL and others do, though, but they come with the caveat that they are known to be 'softer' on grading!

 

[Sakuramickey]

They don't issue a 'proper' grading report with as much detail as a Mined diamond report (i.e. exact colour grades etc.) at this moment in time, but they might in the future??

IGI, EGL and others do, though, but they come with the caveat that they are known to be 'softer' on grading!

Thank you for the clarification. So if a diamond comes with GIA certificate with details such as color clarity cut etc then it’s one way of saying that that diamond is not synthetic (at least at this moment)

 

[OoohShiny]

Thank you for the clarification. So if a diamond comes with GIA certificate with details such as color clarity cut etc then it’s one way of saying that that diamond is not synthetic (at least at this moment)

I think that is a correct assumption.

Plus, GIA will always state on a grading report if a stone is man made / laboratory grown

 

[Sakuramickey]

I think that is a correct assumption.

Plus, GIA will always state on a grading report if a stone is man made / laboratory grown

Thank you! Just checked my GIA certificates, no point man made or laboratory grown...phew!

 

[denverappraiser]

They don't issue a 'proper' grading report with as much detail as a Mined diamond report (i.e. exact colour grades etc.) at this moment in time, but they might in the future??

IGI, EGL
and others do, though, but they come with the caveat that they are known to be 'softer' on grading!

GIA just announced a change in this position although I don't think it's started yet. Their reports on manmade diamonds are changing. They'll start using the standard color and clarity terms that we're all familiar with. They're dropping the word 'synthetic' entirely. They will still be clearly different and prominently indicate that the stones are lab-created (the reports are yellow for example), and the stones MUST have a girdle inscription of both the report number and a statement about lab creation. I don't know when this is due to start but my expectation is soon.

They still won't include treatments on the Lab Diamond reports, and their approach to treatments of mined goods remain unchanged (some treatments are mentioned, some prevent them from issuing a grading report at all).

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/gia-lab-grown-diamond-reports/

 

[denverappraiser]

July 1, 2019 is the start date for the new reports.

 

[Sakuramickey]

GIA just announced a change in this position although I don't think it's started yet. Their reports on manmade diamonds are changing. They'll start using the standard color and clarity terms that we're all familiar with. They're dropping the word 'synthetic' entirely. They will still be clearly different and prominently indicate that the stones are lab-created (the reports are yellow for example), and the stones MUST have a girdle inscription of both the report number and a statement about lab creation. I don't know when this is due to start but my expectation is soon.

They still won't include treatments on the Lab Diamond reports, and their approach to treatments of mined goods remain unchanged (some treatments are mentioned, some prevent them from issuing a grading report at all).

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/gia-lab-grown-diamond-reports/

Thank you for the information. PS rocks!

 

[OoohShiny]

GIA just announced a change in this position although I don't think it's started yet. Their reports on manmade diamonds are changing. They'll start using the standard color and clarity terms that we're all familiar with. They're dropping the word 'synthetic' entirely. They will still be clearly different and prominently indicate that the stones are lab-created (the reports are yellow for example), and the stones MUST have a girdle inscription of both the report number and a statement about lab creation. I don't know when this is due to start but my expectation is soon.

They still won't include treatments on the Lab Diamond reports, and their approach to treatments of mined goods remain unchanged (some treatments are mentioned, some prevent them from issuing a grading report at all).

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/gia-lab-grown-diamond-reports/

Interesting! Thanks for the heads-up

I see they are tiptoeing towards the same grading system as for Mined, even though they surely are already internally grading as comprehensively as Mined in order to determine the correct (but wider-ranging) Colourless / Near colourless / etc. colour grade/band to put an MMD stone in.


The article does present a lot of competing viewpoints and considerations, which I like - journalism should present both sides of an argument, rather than being a mouthpiece for one view only!

 

[Texas Leaguer]

I don't understand the rationale for changing the terminology from 'synthetic diamond' to 'lab grown diamond'. On the one hand GIA makes the point that researchers and even the growers themselves use the term synthetic. On the other hand they say that consumers interpret the term 'synthetic' to mean 'fake'.

If the stated goal is to protect the consumer, isn't it better to err on the side of a term that clearly indicates a difference between this material and natural mined diamonds?

Afterall, the FTC just this week had to send warning letters to eight different synthetic sellers because of deceptive messaging aimed at blurring the distinction.
https://www.whiteflash.com/about-di...rning-to-lab-grown-diamond-companies-1645.htm