Diamond Trust

This is above and beyond what a diamond buyer wants to know, but if you want to get into high end jewellery retail or diamond wholesale then it’s certainly a great accreditation to have - or one to ask for if you’re already in the industry.

I haven’t done it myself but many of my co-workers from my previous work had and those keen to learn benefited a lot.  I was “the computer guy” so I got away with not doing it, but of course I picked up a lot about pricing and grading when coding diamond pricing calculators and floating prices with the index.

There’s only one organisation providing education in this field in Australia and it’s the Gemological Association of Australia.  If you click on your state under “GAA State Divisions” you will see pricing and when the courses run.  If you’re only interested in accreditation in diamonds then Diamond Technology is what you want.

If you’re in North America then you can go direct to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and do their Graduate Diamond Diploma.

So I’m thinking you’re probably wondering who and what to trust when it comes to buying a diamond.  If you’re buying a diamond online then you definitely need a certificate so you know what you’re getting, it’s not like buying a used car where the make and model are obvious (and some diamonds cost as much as a car!)  For those who opt to go “offline” to buy them, the brand, marketing and presence of the jewellery store can build the trust in lieu of a diamond certificate, but most will have certified stones too.

So how do you know that the certificate is worth the paper it’s printed on?  There are so many organisations providing diamond certs - GIA, AGS, GSL, IGI, HRD, EGL and the list goes on.  I ordered that list in the frequency in which I saw them where I worked and I think was quite representative of which certification organisations are the largest and most trusted.  Personally I thought GIA seemed to give the buyer the most confidence because it is the most common.  You know when you compare diamonds online that are GIA certified then you make accurate price comparisons between them.

I also like the fact that you can do a GIA report check so you can verify the diamond grading report is genuine which was an issue a couple of times in the last few years as there were some fake GIA certificates in circulation.

So what’s my conclusion about gemstone certificates?  If I bought online it would have to be a legitimate looking site (I will post more on this later) that offered certificates from either GIA, AGS or GSL (which is Gem Studies Laboratory in Sydney) and if I was buying offline at a high end jeweller I would be inclined to not be so picky because you’re buying into the brand and there should be trust there.