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Insuring a unique antique/vintage OMC men's diamond ring

pkanawha

Rough_Rock
Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
49
Gee, I'm learning so much, also getting so many nice complements on my ring from my new friends on PriceScope. Thanks in advance for what's to come! Now my questions: How should I insure a unique, antique/vintage diamond ring? I would like to insure my 4.28 carat old mine cut (OMC) diamond. Link to article below:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-new-ish-4-28-omc-old-mine-cut-mens-diamond-ring.163498/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-new-ish-4-28-omc-old-mine-cut-mens-diamond-ring.163498/[/URL]

Obviously there are not very many 4 plus carat OMC diamonds floating around at any one time. If this were ever lost/stolen/broken/etc. it would be difficult or impossible to find an OMC diamond (per GIA) of 4+ carats in a color of O-P, VS1, let alone one of a comparable cut since OMC’s aren’t standardized. (Some OMC’s are gorgeous and others are dogs, even if they have the same color/clarity.) Therefore, how would we ever determine the appropriate replacement price, let alone actually replace it? Of course this would not be a problem with say, a 1 carat modern round brilliant (MRB) diamond since there are plenty of these out there. I'd consider going to a new, more widely available cut, e.g. a new cushion cut or an August Vintage Cut (AVC) (I'm not into MRB's), but would I wind up with a 1 carat D VVS1 diamond - nice, and maybe comparable in value but not what I want for a men's ring?!

By the way, I'll probably go with Jeweler's Mutual per advice I've received here in the past. I guess they would work with me and allow me to pick the jeweler who would find the replacement. Even so I wonder: would my allowance be the appraised value I'd been paying for or the amount they deemed appropriate for a “comparable” stone? Again there really are no comparables out there! I wouldn't want them to come up with a stone of similar size and color, but poorly cut and tell me I'd have to settle for that.

One more complication: What’s the appropriate appraised value? I had a well qualified appraiser give me a value of $28,000 a couple of years ago before I had the stone recut (chips removed, bruted girdle faceted; also before it was graded by GIA.) Since then it’s been appraised by another well qualified appraiser (SingleStone) at $42,000. (SingleStone had a GIA appraisal to help; the first did not.) Maybe the stone is worth more now (it does look a lot better!), or maybe it’s just difficult to fix a price since there are so few stones like this for sale at any one time?! I don’t want to pay for $42,000 worth of insurance if it could be replaced for something like $28,000. But I wouldn’t want to be given $28,000 and find out it would cost $42,000 to replace either!

Thanks again for help with this!
 
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