How accurate have the AGA ratings proven?

[folske]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm 99% sure I've found my diamond. I've been married 8 years and am replacing the very modest ring I bought her in college. Here it is:

Cut/Clarity/Color: Princess/F/VS2 (GIA cert)
Weight: 1.24 c
WxL: 5.89x6.27 (1.06 ratio)
Total Depth: 4.12mm or 69.9%
Pavil Depth: 3.43mm or 58.2%
Pavil Ang: 57.9 degrees
Crown Height: .52mm or 8.8%
Crown Ang: 33.1 degrees
Table Size: 4.00mm or 67.9%
Girdle: .12mm or 2.0%

According to the AGA chart on princesses, this is a 1B or high 2A. I've seen Mr. Atlas refer to these charts as a way to ensure a good diamond in that if you get a high quality diamond according to these #'s, it will probably look good.

So.....how important do you think it is that I still send it off to him for an appraisal? I don't want to take an unnecessary risk or shortcut for something that really doesn't cost much, just wondering.

Lastly, I'll ask the obligatory question....do you guys think this is a good one. I know I'm pretty confident, and the price seems to be pretty competitive to a pricescope search: $5935

Thanks for listening, and more importantly, for all the great educational stuff here. It's helped me make my decision....probably

 

[folske]

I've tried to edit this message a couple time to correct my Color/Clarity transposition, but it doesn't seem to take effect. Anyway, sorry for the blatant flub

 

[oldminer]

I welcome doing the kind of analysis that you need. Of course, the AGA Cut Class system is somewhat alone in that we have been grading cut with it since the mid 1980's and the more major labs and associations have been only more recently brought into the quest to grade the cut.

I think we have a lot of it right. Maybe it isn't perfect, but I do believe that if we were dead wrong I'd have been taken to task by many people in the diamond business by now. This has never happened and I believe it gives further strength to what our appraoch has been.

There are very few 1A princess cuts. I have seen two Branded ones, I think Fire Brilliant and SuperbCert both have 1A or at least 1B cuts. Any princess I have ever seen that scored a 2A was darn nice looking. Even a 2A or 2B is rather rare. In time this will surely change.

The princess cut you have sounds very nice. Maybe not the very best, but like I said, they are quite unusual and not in general circulation. Most princess cuts are cut to save weight on the order of ground beef with a little extra fat. Not maybe the very best, but it will make a very tasty hamburger... A somewhat shallow crown, a too deep pavilion lead into a stone with less diameter and more depth. You only get to see the diameter and so the deeper it is, the smaller it will look. The apparent size is a very important aspect of overall cut quality.

 

[folske]

Thanks Dave,


Are you saying my stone is too deep with a shallow crown? Or are these hypotheticals? BTW, my stone is on it's way to you, should be there tomorrow!

Thanks for the help!

 

[oldminer]

I misworded my reply/// Your stone sounds pretty nice by the numbers. We need to see it to be sure and now I see that's what is going to happen. Great!

 

[pricescope]

Folske and Oldminer, please don't forget to share the result with us