help needed for princess cut- EGL info included

[happyscrapper40]

Hi,
My 25th wedding anniversary is coming up. My husband and I have been looking to buy a new wedding ring.
I have info on a princess cut diamond with the EGL info and would like to know what you think about this.
NOTE:
This is the center diamond of a wedding set made by the jewelry store owner for his wife. Her ring may be up for sale, but I want to do some investigating first. The band and surrounding diamonds on the set are custom made and bead setting (I think) with some antiquing to the bands, Ring is set in 14k WG

wt. 2.00 ct
measurements--7.08 x 6.68 x 5.04 mm
Depth 75.4%
Table 79%
Crown 10.3%
Pavillion 59.3%
Girdle very thin to thick polished

Culet none

Polish very good
Symmetry good

Clarity SI3
Grade H
Fluorescence None
Commments----- Laser inscribed CRS DIAM INC.

Los Angeles

Thank you for any information you have to offer.
He is asking 9,500.00 for the wedding set
PLEASE HELP!

 

[jaz464]

I would not consider a princess that has a very thin girdle. Also, I would not choose an SI3, which is in essence, an I1 diamond. Good symmetry also turns me off from this stone. With a table of 79%, I would pass on this; the quality is lacking.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

The negatives: HUGE table, shallow crown, and an EGL SI3 is really an I1. Thus not a great cut, not great color, not great clarity. The measurements show that this faces up a little small for its size. Very thin girdle in a princess can be problematic for the strength of the points/corners.

Positives: price, including setting and possible wedding band, though not superlative might be reasonable for a B&M. Breaks the magic 2 carat barrier for under $10K. (If this is a private seller you found from craigslist, however, the seller is trying to get full B&M value.) A quick search above shows the H/SI3 with EGL certs that are just over 2.00-2.1 carats have internet prices of around $7000 for the stone; the setting price varies highly for the obvious reasons. Hope this helps!

 

[JulieN]

10.3% is not a shallow crown.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Date: 8/15/2007 7:29:32 PM
Author: JulieN
10.3% is not a shallow crown.

Hi JulieN-- I agree that the old cut charts show the 1A crowns to be between 10 and 15%, but in the last year I've observed that the top princess diamonds (the AGS0, WF ACA) tend to have crown heights in the pretty narrow 12.2 to 12.9% indicating to a consumer like me there's probably a sweet spot there. A quick look at WF's ACA offerings using 1-1.5, G/H, VS1-SI1 reveals 11 stones, 10 of which have crowns between 12.0 and 13.2. In my own firsthand observations at my local stores, it seems like bumping up the crown % results in more "dance"... but I'll admit that I'm looking at it from a consumer perspective. (Of course, from a mathematical perspective, it's how those angles play with the other lengths in a geometrical perspective and I remember reading that the AGS charts that had been sent out were segregated by table size (https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/ags-new-cutting-guideline-charts-for-princess-cuts.21586/), but after AGS, we began seeing fewer meaurements in the 60s and more in the 70s, and fewer crowns near 10 and more near 12.5. When I see a table of 79 paired with a crown depth of 10.3 in an EGL stone, that jumps out as a too shallow crown to me that probably had been cut that way to hit the magic weight of 2.00 carats.) JulieN, because I'm always trying to learn more about the various cuts, would you be willing to explain the counter-argument? Thanks!

 

[happyscrapper40]

Thanks for your help. I guess this is really not a great deal. I thought that an owner of a jewelry store would have used the best to make his wifes ring, but I was wrong. Just a little disappointed. I would not mind buying a previously owned ring if it were better quality. Thanks for your input.

 

[DiamondExpert]

Crown height aside (it may be that this stone, with a 59% pav., might perform better with an 11-13% crown height - but we know nothing of the angles at this point or the number of pav. chevrons), two other things may result in a less attractive, less valuable find...first, the stone is not very square, and for the best look/performance the nearer to perfectly square the better (IMO);

second, it is important to know which EGL lab. graded the stone...an EGL lab outside the US could have given the stone a color grade of 1 to 2 grades better than AGS would grade... however, whatever limitations the rough presented the cutter, I'm sure every effort was made to achieve the 2.00ct. mark, and in this he/she was successful

!

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Looks like EGL-LA graded the stone, which in my opinion is the best of the EGL labs. The grading might be dead-on or close. SI3 is a tricky and often overused grade in the trade, but I find that EGL-LA usually knows what a true SI3 is.

10.3% is not a bad crown height either, as Julie points out. I would not reject the stone out-of-hand, but rather give it a chance after viewing it personally. Have you done so yet? How did it look to your eye?

It depends on the mounting and the accent diamonds as to whether the price is fair or not. Bear in mind that there always might be haggling room on the price.