Visible Inclusion on VS2?

[kev-man]

I bought my fiance a 2.48ct E color VS2 diamond (graded by GIA).

There is an inclusion (a feather I think) that is visible to the naked eye when looking at it on the side with it angled properly to the light (it seems to be on the girdle). Is this normal? I''ve heard that VS2s aren''t supposed to have visible inclusions, but I''ve also heard that the larger the stone, the more visible the inclusions. I''ve also heard that GIA only does their grading from the top of the stone which makes this inclusion invisible to the naked eye

I don''t mind the inclusion that much. My fiance is aware of it and we both feel it makes the ring more recoginzable to us. You could never see it unless you knew how to look for it and took the ring off her finger. My bigger concern though is that it wasn''t a correct grading of the diamond. The whole VS2 visible thing.

As you can imagine this stone cost me quite a bit of money. Her ring is beautiful and she gets millions of compliments on it, but for my own sanity I was curious for some of the thoughts of the experts here. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lorelei]

Welcome.

Clarity grading is done face up, so even a larger VS you might see something from the side and at just the right angle and in the right light. Of course, once you know where to look your eyes automatically goes there. And yes, generally the bigger the stone gets, the more chance you might possibly see something, even in a VS clarity. Clarity grading isn't an exact science and sometimes you can get a 'high SI1' or 'low SI1'which means it could be more of a VS or SI2 clarity if that makes sense as an example. I doubt that your diamond is wrongly graded, it can depend on so many things and also the eyes viewing the diamond. Maybe the best thing might be to get an independant appraiser to look at the diamond, more difficult for an exam with the diamond mounted and again the clarity grading is subject to opinion, but it might make you feel better to get a professional opinion that you do have a VS and this might lay any doubts to rest. But it sounds like an INCREDIBLE diamond you bought, enjoy it!!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 12/11/2006 2:51:14 AM
Author:kev-man
I bought my fiance a 2.48ct E color VS2 diamond (graded by GIA).

There is an inclusion (a feather I think) that is visible to the naked eye when looking at it on the side with it angled properly to the light (it seems to be on the girdle). Is this normal? I''ve heard that VS2s aren''t supposed to have visible inclusions, but I''ve also heard that the larger the stone, the more visible the inclusions. I''ve also heard that GIA only does their grading from the top of the stone which makes this inclusion invisible to the naked eye

I don''t mind the inclusion that much. My fiance is aware of it and we both feel it makes the ring more recoginzable to us. You could never see it unless you knew how to look for it and took the ring off her finger. My bigger concern though is that it wasn''t a correct grading of the diamond. The whole VS2 visible thing.

As you can imagine this stone cost me quite a bit of money. Her ring is beautiful and she gets millions of compliments on it, but for my own sanity I was curious for some of the thoughts of the experts here. Thanks in advance.

You win the prize!!!!

There is a $1 dollar prize for the first person to be able to know where an inclusion is and hold the stone in just the right place so you can see it.

Congratulations.

But the real money is held in trust for the person who stops you in the street and say "oh you poor thing - you have a big inclusion there in that diamond - I can see it from here".

Many people can see SI1 inclusions when they know where they are. So you could have saved thousands of dollars and had an SI1. That would upset me more than being able to see a VS2.

The good news is that 2 or 3 glasses of wine, or 10 years of age, and you will never be able to see it again

 

[kev-man]

Thanks for the helpful reply Lorelei,

We had to adjust the size of the ring by inserting a ring guard and the guy I took it to for the adjustment told me if I wanted to give him the certificate and the original appraisal and if he feels it is drastically different than I can pay for a full appraisal. After submitting all of that he actually felt that if anything the appraisal was too low (which was fine b/c the appraiser ended up putting down what I paid for the ring).

Again I wasn''t too concerned about the inclusion itself since it almost personalizes our stone, but instead this whole concept of VS2 and eye-clean. It sounds like the whole thing deals with grading from the top and the size of the stone. Thanks again for your help. As you can imagine hearing your kind of response just makes me feel a little better about my purchase. Thanks again.

 

[Cehrabehra]

I have a VS2 2.71 carat and I can''t see anything even when it is perfectly clean and with a 10x. I have seen them with a 20x but I was told it was a very high vs2.... it''s possible yours is a very low vs2 but honestly I wouldn''t worry about it. I am actually disappointed I can''t find my inclusions easier for identification purposes. Good news for you is no one else will ever be able to see it

 

[WindyCitySparkle]

I''m no expert for sure (so take this with a pile of salt), but I have heard that with a large stone, if the inclusion is near the edge it will sometimes not bring down the clarity grade. You say this one is near the girdle. That may be why it is a VS2. The logic may be that since the cutter could have cut a little more off of the stone to make it the higher clarity grade, the fact that they left it bigger doesn''t bring down the grade for the whole stone. I had a stone appraised recently that has a chip in the girdle. It was appraised as an SI instead of an I, and the appraiser said that one of the reasons for that was because the stone could be re-cut as a smaller stone without the chip.

I bet that you probably got a better price due to that inclusion. So, maybe, you win -- you got a stone that is rightfully called a VS2, got a better price, and got an easily identifiable but still beautiful stone. I''m jealous .