Many diamonds have been graded by an independent gemmological laboratory. The report produced from the grading process is called an independent diamond grading certificate or independent diamond grading report.
Each report details certain characteristics of the diamond that has been graded.
There are 5 main gemmological institutes that handle the
independent grading of diamonds.
GIA www.gia.edu
GIA is the Gemological Institute of America. This is recognised as one of the leading grading labs in the world and is a non-profit organisation. The world headquarters are located in California, USA.
Their website has some very good interactive diamond education tutorials.
AGS is the American Gem Society. It is half investor-owned and half jeweller-association owned. They have the reputation of grading the very best diamonds and hence you will pay more for an AGS certified diamond.
HRD www.hrd.be
HRD is the Antwerp World Diamond Centre located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is a non-profit organisation. One of the departments is HRD Certificates. As a European-based lab, HRD certificates do not get much mention on the more prevalent US-based diamond informational sites. However, they do have a very good reputation in Europe itself, and are essentially the European equivalent of GIA. This laboratory was the first worldwide to gain accreditation itself for the quality standards of EN 45001, ISO/IEC Guide 25 and ISO 9002.
8 out of 10 rough diamonds pass through Antwerp, and 1 out of every 2 cut diamonds.
EGL www.egl.co.za
EGL is the European Gemological Laboratory. This is a network of iinstitutes located in South Africa, India, Belgium, the UK, Israel, Turkey, Korea, and France.
IGI www.igiworldwide.com
IGI is the International Gemological Institute. This is one of the smaller laboratories.
Tips on Diamond Certification
In my opinion, it is ESSENTIAL to purchase a diamond with a grading certificate from a reputable laboratory. This is one of the few assurances you have that the diamond you are buying is authentic.
You will pay more for diamonds graded by the GIA and AGS systems. In other words, an identical diamond, one graded by the HRD and the other by the GIA, would actually cost you more if you were to buy the GIA-certified version. In my opinion, a grading report from a laboratory such as HRD is very reputable and it is not necessarily worth the extra cost to buy a GIA certified diamond.
