subject: How To Select The Best Certified Diamond [print this page] When you are planning to buy diamond engagement ring, the most important thing to consider is to check if the diamond is certified diamond or not. Always it is better advised to buy diamond from a certified diamonds dealer. This is because the diamonds that you buy from certified dealers would have authenticity and are certified to be what they claim. Hence you can be assured about the purchase.
The certification is relatively important as most of the people cannot judge if the diamond is real or fake. The diamond certification gives detail on many things about the stone you plan to buy. First and foremost, it gives an assurance that the diamond has been inspected and certified by one of the reliable diamond laboratories. There are five diamond grading labs which are popular. They are HRD, EGL, GIA, AGS, and IGI. The certificate given by these labs ensure that the characteristics of the diamond like cut, carat, color and clarity are authentic and have been defined on the certificate after proper inspection. Thus you would get a clear idea about what you are purchasing. However, the certification process is not cheap and it costs some bucks to the seller. Hence the price of the certified diamonds would be more but it will increase the confidence of the buyers.
Different grading labs issue different certificates. So are all the diamond certificates equal? No, all the certificates are not equal. But the purpose of the entire certificate would be the same; they all would let you know if you are buying a genuine stone. Since the certification process is costly, it has a major impact over the price of the diamond. This means it is completely your choice to decide which aspect of the stone is more important to you.
The diamond certification is generally given by AGS and GIA in the United States. They are considered as reliable sources since they are leading the industry. This diamonds are more expensive than the competitors like IGI and EGL certified diamonds. For a high value diamond, there would be high quality ratings on the certificate. The certified loose diamonds gives credibility to the stone while it is purchased. The selling the diamond is also made easy if you have a certificate.
For reaching a better buying decision, the diamond certification is extremely important. Commonly the grading by GIA is considered as most reliable and authentic. This is because the organization is non profit and it has been believed that the grading is more strict and accurate there. Moreover, the lab has only one location. But for EGL there are nine locations worldwide. The prices of EGL and IGI certified diamonds would be cheaper compared to the GIA and AGS ones. However, the characteristics of the diamonds would be more or less the same.
While choosing the certified diamond, it is completely your personal preference to pick which one you want. This is similar to selecting the color, clarity and any other characteristics of the diamond. Think and decide how much the quality of the certificate matters to you. But always make sure that you are getting a properly certified diamond.
