Certificate

A diamond certificate is the evaluation by a third-party, not by either the diamond buyer or seller. Unfortunately, a 3rd party certification is necessary, as it would be easy for an unscrupulous jeweller to take advantage of an uninformed buyer and sell him or her a stone, which ostensibly has much better characteristics than it really does. There are a number of ways unsuspecting buyers might land a bad deal. If the diamond is not certified, there is a good chance you may be buying a stone that is one or more grades below stated values in terms of carat weight, colour, clarity, or cut. Without a certificate, issued by a reputable agency, such as GIA, IGI, or EGL, a buyer relies on a jeweller’s integrity that the diamond’s4C characteristicsare accurate and not overstated.

At Kings if diamonds we use 3 diamond certificates, Gemological Institute of America (GIA), International Gemological Institute (IGI), European Gemological Laboratory (EGL)

GIA

www.gia.edu

The GIA is the largest American-based non-profit organisation in the world, dedicated to diamond education, research, and assessment. The GIA introduced diamond certification to the industry in the 1950's. Since then the GIA's International Diamond Grading System™ has become the most highly regarded international standard for diamond grading. Among the handful of lab reports and services that the GIA offers are the two posts commonly issued documents; the GIA Diamond Grading Report and the GIA Diamond Dossier.

GIA Diamond Grading Report®: Commonly referred to as a diamond certificate, the GIA's official name for this lab assessment is a Diamond Grading Report. For those loose diamonds that weigh 0.15 carat and above, the GIA issues a full Diamond Grading Report. This report analyses not only the stone's carat weight, colour, clarity and cut grades, but also marks the stone's inclusions and blemishes using standardized symbols plotted on the diagram. Because no two stones are ever exactly alike, a plotting of the clarity characteristics of a stone serves as a fingerprint in case the stone is stolen, lost or resold.

GIA Diamond Dossier®: For those diamonds weighing between 0.15 and 1.99 carats, the GIA also issues a diamond dossier. The dossier certification includes a minuscule laser inscription of the report's serial number along the girdle of the diamond. It evaluates all of the same key qualities as the diamond certificate without a plotted representation of the clarity characteristics of the diamond.

IGI

www.igiworldwide.com

Established in 1975, The International Gemological Institute (IGI) is the largest independent laboratory which provides diamond and fine jewellery grading and evaluations. The IGI prides itself in being the only international certification laboratory which is owned and controlled by one central governing body to insure consistency in its grading reports worldwide.

Located in numerous cities around the world including Antwerp, New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tokyo, Bangkok, Dubai, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Cavalese, the IGI issued more than one million reports per year. These reports include diamond grading reports, coloured stone reports, identification and appraisal reports and diamond authentication and attestation of origin. In addition to certified grading reports, the IGI also offers laser inscription services, diamond appraisals and diamond and coloured stone courses through IGI's School of Gemmology.

EGL

www.eglinternational.org

E.G.L. International has laboratories all over the world in London, Paris, Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. With a worldwide presence, gemmological certificates issued by E.G.L. International are recognized around the globe. The organisation follows industry standards in evaluation and appraisal and runs numerous educational gemological programmes.

Conflict Free Diamonds

Kings of diamonds uses only conflict-free diamonds which are obtained from legitimate diamond sources that have been certified through the worldwide recognized Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).

Kings of diamonds will not knowingly use conflict diamonds and adhere to the Kimberly process which was organised to stem the flow of conflict diamonds in Africa.

A blood diamond (also called a conflict diamond, converted diamond, hot diamond, or war diamond) is a term used for a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance aninsurgency, an invading army's war efforts, or awarlord's activity. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the recent civil wars in Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and other nations have been given the label.

For more information visit http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/