Please rate this Diamond!

[Park406]

Hi I am new here, but the wealth of information provided here is amazing and incredibly useful! I was looking at this 1 carat diamond from a local jeweler and was wondering what you thought about it. I just want to be sure that it's ok!

It's a little bit hard to see, I apologise in advance!




The specs are:
1 Carat, F, SI1, Excellent (But the comments on the IGI says "Ideal cut round brilliant"?)

Thanks so so much!

 

[ChristineRose]

Is this a synthetic diamond? If not you will get a much better response on Rocky Talky. Did you try running the diamond's measurements through the HCA? I'm really not good at reading ASET images.

Also, IGI is less reliable than the other labs (which don't grade synthetics). They are not necessarily soft the way dishonest labs always are, just less reliable and careful. Make sure there is a good return policy and take the stone to an independent appraiser.

 

[Park406]

Yes it's a synthetic! Would it still be ok to post on Rocky Talky if it's synthetic? The HCA came back as a 2, and yes I've read about IGI being less reliable, but like you said the others won't rate synthetics unfortunately.. It was certified in Belgium if that makes any difference!

Depth: 60.6
Table: 59
Crown Angle: 34.5
Pavilion Angle: 40.9

 

[ChristineRose]

Actually, it seems to be pretty good.

We're not supposed to talk about synthetics on RT and the trade can't talk about stones at all. Sometimes an expert comes by and helps but I'm often all by myself.

This thread has some insight into IGI.

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/igi-reliability-for-lab-diamonds.231859/

The upshot of it is that IGI Belgium is a good lab.

This stone would be graded as Excellent by GIA. Pricescope tends to condemn the GIA Ex range as being too broad. Actually GIA came up with its range by showing people a bunch of diamonds and they found that some people liked "bad" diamonds better than "good" diamonds. The real problem with GIA Ex is that over half of all stones cut now are cut to exactly fall into the very edge of the range. So they are outliers in what people found pretty.

As for the HCA--the HCA favors shallow diamonds because that's what Gary Holloway likes. GIA likes much deeper diamonds. Deep diamonds tend to have larger flashes and look more colorful, but they sacrifice overall light return.

This diamond is very well cut, but if you look at the ASET the green triangles which look like a letter M are kind of large and there's a darker area in the middle of the diamond. I'm not sure about the dark area because the picture quality is bad, but I think it's lack of light. The hearts in the H&A image are long and skinny and have clefs in the middle. But this stone is not cut to the very edge of the GIA Ex area. In fact it's really close to making an AGS 0.

So here's my advice. It sounds like you are able to see the stone, which is always good. Ask your jeweler to show you a comparable branded stone. Hearts on Fire is the easiest to find. Then compare the two stones in a bunch of different lights. Do not let the dealer convince you to look in showroom lights only! Find some ugly fluorescent lights. Take them into a closet and the bathroom. Then decide what you think.

If after that you want to pay for top performance, Good Old Gold carries a handful of lab stones and will at least tell you if they have any truly perfect lab stones. I think they even cut some.

Good luck! It sounds like this stone is very promising!

 

[Park406]

Wow, thank you so much for your in depth response.. I appreciate that. And I'll definitely have a look at it in different light settings with a brand one. She actually encouraged me to look at the diamonds under the desk away from light, but I didn't ask if I could walk around to different rooms or bathrooms. We both knew IGI was at the bottom of the list and GIA ratings are pretty broad too, but if you say it might be an AGS 0 that is awesome! Going off what you're saying I'll compare it with different branded stones and in different lights, and I'll have to take a look at Good Old Gold too before making a final decision. Thank you so so much!! You've been such awesome help!

 

[ChristineRose]

I see you got some responses in Rocky Talky!

Anything Karl_K says is much better than what I said. Just to be clear, it's not an AGS 0, but it's sort of close. The 60/60 style is loved by many and was trendy a few decades ago. It's good to compare it to other stones though.

If you search for 60/60 diamonds you can find some articles about what they look like and why so many older stones are 60/60.