Three Good Reasons Not to Wear a Flawless Diamond

February 11th, 2009 by James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG

Recently, I re-appraised a beautiful diamond ring and had some unsettling news for my client.

We had appraised this ring several years back, as is, with no documentation from the client.  At the time, I could see no inclusions whatsoever at 10x in our GIA DL microscope, and the nice high color 3 ct. round had a faceted girdle with no bearding—tiny cracks common to the girdle (the outer edge) of round diamonds.  I gave the center stone a clarity grade of VVS1, not Flawless or Internally Flawless—standard practice when appraising a mounted stone because you cannot observe all of the stone.

This time, my client informed me that she had a grading certificate, and sure enough, her GIA diamond report graded the stone as Internally Flawless.  My original color grade and weight estimate agreed with the GIA document, so when I updated her appraisal, I increased the replacement value by about $7,000 to reflect the original GIA clarity grade. But there was a caveat.

First, I told my client that because she had worn the ring for a number of years, the chances were that it was no longer (Internally) Flawless!  Also, that if the stone were now VVS1, its replacement value would be substantially less.

Her response was one we commonly hear, that diamond is the hardest substance so you can’t damage a diamond.  I explained that even though diamond is extremely hard, it has grain, like a piece of wood, and can develop cracks along the grain.  Because it had been subjected to the stress of years of daily wear, it was likely that GIA wouldn’t grade the stone Internally Flawless in its current condition.  I couldn’t see any obvious feathers but the stone did show a few minor rubs along the facet edges of the table—evidence of wear.

Next, I told her that any diamond dealer worth his salt would know that since it had been worn, the stone would need re-grading by GIA before it could be sold as Internally Flawless.  This would mean either additional time and cost for re-grading or taking a discounted price from a dealer, should she want to resell the diamond or trade up.

And finally, if it indeed had suffered some damage that penetrated into the stone, such as a small feather, and if she did want to restore the stone to Internally Flawless, the stone would have to come out of the ring for repair by a good diamond cutter, and then go to GIA for re-grading.

If the diamond in question weighed right on the carat mark, such as 2.00 or 3.00, a re-cut could be truly disastrous—a stone weighing 2.99 cts. would take a big hit in value, compared to a 3.00! In the diamond trade, diamonds are weighed to the 1/1000 of a carat and by tradition, are not rounded up. If a stone weighs 2.999, it’s sold as 3.00 but if it weighs 2.998, it’s sold as 2.99 cts. Big hassle, big bucks!

We sell lots of fine diamonds at Mardon, but rarely do we recommend a flawless diamond.  Truth be said, the visual appearance of a flawless diamond when seen on the hand is not significantly better than that of a VVS, VS, or even a good SI diamond.

So, the lesson is – Don’t wear a flawless diamond if money means anything to you!

In our opinion, Color and Cut contribute much more to the visual beauty of a diamond than does Clarity. Unless you just want the satisfaction and bragging rights of owning a diamond with a flawless clarity grade, we suggest a wiser purchase—spend the same money to buy a VS clarity diamond of better color, bigger size, and/or nicer cut.

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