GIA reporting on yellow vs grey vs brown hues....

[Wholovesskunks]

So if GIA grades a stone a K and doesn't make mention of faint brown does this mean it's faint yellow? Will they mention in the grading which hue it is or do they just not mark it at all? I've seen a couple GIA reports that it states faint brown and mine doesn't so I'm just curious. I have a video of mine but can't tell if it's a brown or yellow hue. I've been told mine is a true K.

And if someone can tell me where I can put a review on a vendor that would be awesome. I've had quite a bit of questionable information given to me by their customer service reps. Including that the clarity is what makes the stone sparkle and that one person could call a hue yellow and another could call the same hue brown. Ummmmmmm..... No. For a new person, this information could make an educated decision very hard.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

Yes, yellow, if it's not noted otherwise the undertone is yellow.

 

[EvaEvans]

And if someone can tell me where I can put a review on a vendor that would be awesome.

You can put your vendor review here:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/forums/pricescope-testimonials.57/

 

[Diamondz1]

I'm no expert but, from this explanation of undertones at Victor Canera's site, it looks like there shouldn't be any brown in your K, if it wasn't noted on the GIA report:
https://www.victorcanera.com/blog/diamond-color-undertones

 

[Resonance.Of.Life]

Not necessarily, my old 4 carat GIA K antique cushion has a brown undertone that was apparent when unset and set against white paper AND while bezeled. My stolen 1.03 carat AVC AGS J had a purplish brown body tint that was apparent when set against white paper.

 

[Diamondz1]

ROL your old stone had a purple brown undertone? That's bananas, do you have any pictures? Very cool.

I'm hoping one of the trade members who specializes in colored stones will chime in because I've read that if the brown undertone (using brown as an example) is greater than or equal to the K body color (using K as an example) it will be listed on the GIA report, but could it exist and be less than the intensity of the K color? Then it would be there, but not represented on the grading report. I'd be interested to hear about that. Something like that could explain the undertone in your GIA K, ROL, as I'm assuming it wasn't on your grading report?

 

[acebruin]

The D-Z scale is for yellow tones. K will start at faint yellow. Y-Z is light yellow. However, GIA reports will not include the words light yellow, faint yellow, etc. After that it goes into Fancy color grade, starting with Fancy Light. If it has brown undertone, GIA will note faint brown, very light brown, light brown, along with letter grade. Other colors GIA will not assign letter grade, only color grade such as faint pink, light green, etc.

Here's a blog post explaining it all...

https://www.victorcanera.com/blog/diamond-color-undertones

 

[hifihua428]

GIA generally will state brown/grey, but not always. More often AGS and IGI dont state brown/grey, so they may look identical on the paper.

 

[hifihua428]

For example:
This one is a typical GIA with yellow undertone.
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...k-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-3045043

This one definitely has hints of brown. Yet, GIA doesn't state the undertone color.
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...k-color-vs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-2598800

AGS - Faint brown undertone, but doesnt mention in the certificate
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...arat-k-color-vs2-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-929755

If you look carefully, these 3 diamonds have very different undertone.

 

[Wholovesskunks]

Sigh. When I think I have one nuance of diamonds down it always seems to end up being "but not always". I have video of my stone but it says it's too large to attach. :/ I feel like it may have brown undertones but the certificate doesn't mention them. I asked the vendor what the hue was and told it's a true k. Ummmm ok.

 

[Wholovesskunks]

I hope this worked! Brown or yellow?

 

[acebruin]

Greenish yellow imo... But mainly yellow.

 

[Resonance.Of.Life]

ROL your old stone had a purple brown undertone? That's bananas, do you have any pictures? Very cool.

I'm hoping one of the trade members who specializes in colored stones will chime in because I've read that if the brown undertone (using brown as an example) is greater than or equal to the K body color (using K as an example) it will be listed on the GIA report, but could it exist and be less than the intensity of the K color? Then it would be there, but not represented on the grading report. I'd be interested to hear about that. Something like that could explain the undertone in your GIA K, ROL, as I'm assuming it wasn't on your grading report?

Yes, my AVC had a purplish brown tone to it .. in normal lighting it faced up white, but in office lighting it became very apparent the tone. It was an AGS J and I recall another PSer, Gypsy I believe, that even commented on the purple-brown undertone.

My GIA K did not have it on the grading report, but my appraiser and Grace both confirmed it wasn't my imagination.

 

[kenny]

I hope this worked! Brown or yellow?

Nobody can grade diamond from pics for videos.
GIA wont.
Why ask us to?

 

[Wholovesskunks]

I realize that now. I was asking what the hue of this stone was thought to be based on the video. Yellow or brown? GIA did not note any color on the report. It is a K stone.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

The GIA color scale in the normal range (D-Z) is based upon yellow or brown modifiers. So you won't get a color designation on a report unless those colors exceed Z and go into the fancy range. If the modifier is a color other than yellow or brown it will be reported as faint, very light, or light according to the letter letter grade bracket that it falls in.
https://www.gia.edu/gia-about-4Cs-Color

 

[gm89uk]

The GIA color scale in the normal range (D-Z) is based upon yellow or brown modifiers. So you won't get a color designation on a report unless those colors exceed Z and go into the fancy range. If the modifier is a color other than yellow or brown it will be reported as faint, very light, or light according to the letter letter grade bracket that it falls in.
https://www.gia.edu/gia-about-4Cs-Color

Hi Texas Leaguer, what about a stone such as the below where it is a K and brown and GIA have put faint brown. I'd assume consistency across all brown hues?
https://www.jamesallen.com/mobile/l...-color-vvs2-clarity-very-good-cut-sku-3035673

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Hi Texas Leaguer, what about a stone such as the below where it is a K and brown and GIA have put faint brown. I'd assume consistency across all brown hues?
https://www.jamesallen.com/mobile/l...-color-vvs2-clarity-very-good-cut-sku-3035673

Hmmm. I guess I stand corrected. I am not sure whether this represents a change in reporting or if I just had never noticed it before. I will inquire with GIA.

 

[Diamondz1]

GIA does report brown undertones from K-Z. That's why I'm curious about whether it's only reported beyond a certain level of saturation, or some other metric, which would explain why ROL's GIA K appeared to have brown undertones but nothing was listed on the report. Perhaps the amount of brown in her K fell below the threshold.

 

[acebruin]

GIA will report brown starting with K. I suspect though if a stone is on the border between J and K, GIA sometimes will NOT put faint brown on the report even if the grade comes out to be K. I don't know exactly why some Ks with clear brown undertones doesn't have faint brown on the report.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

I have just been updated by my contact at GIA. For brown only, K and below the report will show both the letter grade and corresponding hue intensity. Yellow is presumed unless otherwise called out, so for yellow there will just be a letter grade. For grey, there will be no letter grade, just the hue and intensity. The attached graphic illustrates it. It is possible that a diamond could look brown in a photo and be K or beyond and not have a brown designation. This would indicate that in the opinion of the grader there was not enough brown to warrant the call. This could be as a result of a mix of modifiers.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

notice also that the "other" colors transition off the letter scale at G. This implies that a 'faint pink, blue or green' can have substantially less color than a faint brown.

 

[gm89uk]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Thanks for all the info!

You are more than welcome. Thank you for sending me back to school on this issue! We don't deal in many stones past J in color so I was a little out of date. But I was told that GIA has been reporting this way for many years.

 

[bmfang]

I have just been updated by my contact at GIA. For brown only, K and below the report will show both the letter grade and corresponding hue intensity. Yellow is presumed unless otherwise called out, so for yellow there will just be a letter grade. For grey, there will be no letter grade, just the hue and intensity. The attached graphic illustrates it. It is possible that a diamond could look brown in a photo and be K or beyond and not have a brown designation. This would indicate that in the opinion of the grader there was not enough brown to warrant the call. This could be as a result of a mix of modifiers.

As we would say here in Australia: "This one's headed straight to the pool room."

Great post and I've saved that image for future reference.

 

[Diamond_Hawk]

I have just been updated by my contact at GIA. For brown only, K and below the report will show both the letter grade and corresponding hue intensity. Yellow is presumed unless otherwise called out, so for yellow there will just be a letter grade. For grey, there will be no letter grade, just the hue and intensity. The attached graphic illustrates it. It is possible that a diamond could look brown in a photo and be K or beyond and not have a brown designation. This would indicate that in the opinion of the grader there was not enough brown to warrant the call. This could be as a result of a mix of modifiers.

This is great info -

Thanks!

 

[WinkHPD]

And now ladies and gentlemen, you all know more than most jewelers about color designation on GIA reports. Thank you Texas Leaguer for the tutorial and the reminder. This tint issue has become so prevalent that many that list in Rap will even list the lack of modifiers other than yellow to reassure potential buyers that they are not getting one of the less desirable colors tints.

This is an interesting and incredibly complex industry and it is often poorly represented by those who sell at the retail level. It is one of the reasons why a board like this can be so valuable to the consumer. Those who know, or as Texas Leaguer has just so well demonstrated, know where to get the information, are happy and willing to share with those who ask.

Thank you TL!

Wink

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Thank you Hawk and Wink. Just like the two of you and so many folks here on this board, I enjoy learning and sharing. We are all birds of a feather here!

hmmm. 'feather' seems to work there rather well somehow

 

[WinkHPD]

LOL, I did not think we were allowed to say anything good about feathers here...

Wink