How to Read a Diamond Report

A grading report is a description, not a guarantee of beauty. What to check first, what to ignore, and the one line most buyers miss.

A grading report arrives looking official, which is precisely the problem. Official documents discourage questions.

Here is how we read one with a client sitting across the table.

Start at the bottom, not the top

Most people read the grades first. We read the identification first, the measurements, the shape, the report number. Then we check the number laser-inscribed on the stone matches the number on the paper.

A report describes one specific diamond. Confirming that it describes this diamond takes a moment and is the whole point of having it.

Then the grades, in order of consequence

Cut first, where it is given. Colour and clarity next, with the understanding that both scales extend well past what an unaided eye can detect.

The most common mistake we see is a buyer paying a significant premium to move from one clarity grade to the next when neither inclusion is visible without magnification. That money buys a better line on a document. It does not buy a better-looking ring.

The line most people skip

Comments. It sits at the bottom in small type and it can materially change what you are looking at, treatments, additional clouding, characteristics not shown in the plotted diagram.

Read the comments.

What a report cannot do

It cannot tell you whether the stone is beautiful. Two diamonds with identical grades can perform noticeably differently, particularly in fancy shapes.

The report tells you what you are buying. Your eye tells you whether you want it. Use both, in that order, and do not let the paper overrule the stone in front of you.

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C'Garden is an independent bespoke jeweller in Kuala Lumpur. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by any organisation, laboratory or brand named in this article. Third-party names are used only to refer factually to those organisations and their published standards. All text and imagery in this article is original work created by C'Garden.

Reference

Gemological Institute of America. (n.d.). GIA diamond grading & reports. GIA 4Cs. https://4cs.gia.edu/en-us/grading-diamond-4cs/