Looking for H&A

[C60]

I am looking for a H&A diamond, preferably F, VS1, approx. 1.15 - 1.2. I checked out Whiteflash, Goodoldgold and Superbcert, but they don''t have anything in their inventory. Is there another reputable web-dealer that carries H&A inventory?

Since the web-inventory of H&A appear to be thin, I am considering just going for a GIA-OXX. Can anybody comment as to the difference between a well-cut H&A and a GIA-OXX?

I am purposefully avoiding AGS-Ideal because I have been told that AGS standards are lower than GIA. Is this true?

With respect to AGS grading standards, is there a difference between fluorescence that is negligible and inert?

Any and all suggestions and comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

[valeria101]

I am not sure I understand your post. There are a few confusing points:

#1. GIA Ex-Ex is not the same as harts and arrows or AGS Ideal cut. The "ex-ex" concern only the finish of the diamond, not it's proportions as the other two standards do. GoodOldGold makes a point of this in their tutorial with this example (among the "Educational" listings)

#2. This is the first time I hear that AGS grading is not as good as GIA's. Until now I knew the contrary, especially regarding the finish grades (ASG "ideal" is supposed to be even taugher to get than GIA's "excellent"). No difference is made between the overall color and calrity grading by the two labs. You may find some comments about this in the tutorial here (including average price premiums for different types of certificates) and there is a comparative study of different labs... surely you know of these.


#3. Those grades and numbers are awfully tight: if F/VS1 works why not E/VS2 ? or G/VVS2 ? If 1.15-1.2cts works, why not 1.25 ? A few points would likely make no difference of size (since the cut also determines diameter) and adjacent color and clarity gardes this high up the scale make slight if any visual difference - not just in my opinion.


All in all, a search for diamonds with known HCA (most are H&A in this list with appropriate desciptions) between 1.1-1.3cts, E-G color, VVS2-VS2 clarity yielded 30 diamonds - not a crowd, but no dearth of contenders either.

Just my 0.2, of course.

 

[valeria101]

If I think twice, two details limit your search most. Most ideals and harts and arrows woudl actually come with an AGS certificate (because this lab offeres respected cut grading). And weight is listed here down to three decimals - so you may want to revise the interval accordingly.

Among the 30 listings there were the darlings below - F/VS exactly if you would really not inspect any alternative.

About fluorescence... You may find older threds about this - the issue has definitely been discussed before. For example, see the comment of david Atlas on this thread. There are others.

 

[Kaili]

I saw this when I did a quick search:

http://www.whiteflash.com/diamonds/diamond_Details.aspx?itemcode=AGS-5284702

You may want to search a little bit smaller and a little bit larger than you are looking for to get more results. Also, to the naked eye, you will most likely not see a difference between VS1 and VS2, so that could broaden your search as well.

You can do a search by cut (for H&A only) here: http://www.pricescope.com/sift.asp

I searched for H&A, D - F color, VS1-VS2, 1.0- 1.3, and found several different results.

In terms of AGS vs GIA, you may be interested to read this survey on the different labs- http://grading.pricescope.com/