Anything valuable has papers.  Show dogs? Yes.  Purebred cats?  Yes.  Antique Cars?   Absolutely.  So it shouldn’t be any surprise that it’s possible to buy a diamond with papers known as certifications.  For anyone who really wants to have the bragging rights of having a bona-fide diamond, GIA Certified Diamonds are the way to go.

The GIA, also known as the Gemological Institute of America – and indeed it must be an institution for people who are crazy enough to look at shiny rocks all day long – issues the highest caliber certifications for diamonds.  This institution is the global authority on gemstones and is responsible for developing the criteria via which a diamond or any other gemstone is appraised.   A GIA certified diamond will have a report that contains all information about that diamond – the “4Cs” – carat, color, cut and clarity – and a diagram that shows anything unique to that GIA certified diamond.

So how you do buy a GIA certified diamond?  You simply need to call a jeweler and ask for one or ask him to order one for you.  However, those who want to buy a GIA certified diamond should to be careful because there are dishonest people who pass off their diamonds as being as such when they are not.  The simplest way to check is to look at the GIA certification and check that the certificate is from New York or Carlsbad, CA.  Any other address is a sham or is form an organization that does not have the same standards as the GIA unless it comes from the European equivalent of the GIA, the Hoge Raad voor de Diamant, or the HRD for short.

Aside for the prestige gained from owning such a stone, anyone owning a GIA certified diamond will avoid problems those who do not own such a diamond have.  First of all, anyone who owns GIA certified diamonds will avoid being ripped off if they decide to sell their diamond.  In addition, GIA certified diamond owners will be reimbursed if their diamond is stolen or disappears for some reason.

So, it’s a good idea for anyone thinking about buying a diamond or diamond jewelry to make sure their purchase is GIA certified and in fact a GIA certified diamond.  This will ensure that you have an easy time in the future and avoid issues that other people have in regards to their diamond jewelry. These certificates can be difficult to understand if you are nor familiar with industry jargon. Zoara.com offers a detailed explanation of your diamond certificate so you can check them out if you are having trouble reading your GIA, or other diamond grading report.

Here’s a quick tour of diamond stores around the country.

Diamond stores in Atlanta: Check out the Bennett Street Design District.

Diamond Stores in Baltimore: The Antique Row on Howard Street is a must.

Diamond Stores in Boston: Newbury Street is your target for some great jewelry pieces.

Diamond Stores in Chicago: Wabash Street is where Jewelers Row is. Shuttle on over!

Diamond Stores in Denver: If you live in the Rockies, Cherry Creek North Business district. End of story.

Diamond Stores in Detroit: New Center, among other places, but this one is the biggest in the city.

Diamond Stores in Houston: Too many places to list, but the most central is the Galleria.

Diamond Stores in Las Vegas: Oh come on! Everywhere! To list two famous ones, Caesar’s Palace and the Venetian Casinos.

Diamond Stores in Los Angeles: The Jewelry District downtown, of course. One of the most expensive in the country.

Diamond Stores in Miami: Though there are more famous jewelry hotspots, the quaintest in my opinion is Lincoln Road.

Let’s call it a day, shall we? You’re not going to get to them all right now anyway.

If you’re a charting fan and liked your Algebra II and calculus classes, then diamond prices will interest you. If you try to map out the graph of diamond prices, or the displacement, you’ll get something like a steadily increasing slightly slanted stair case for the diamond price as weight, or carat, increases. Unfortunately for two-dimensional space, you can only plot one variable at a time on a standard Cartesian coordinate system graph, making diamond prices pretty elusive when it comes to plotting them visually into a shape. This is because, when it comes to diamond prices, there are actually four variables. There’s the cut, the clarity, the color, and the carat, already discussed. Starting with the last, the carat is simply the weight of the diamond. The diamond price will raise like a slanted stair case at different intervals and jump rapidly as the carat weight hits certain thresholds. This pattern in diamond prices will continue, steadily increasing and then jumping every carat until the six carat mark, where things just get way out of control and diamonds become specialty items.

If we introduce another variable into the graph and create a z-axis, we can start to build a three dimensional graph and begin to develop a very morphy and trip-inducing diamond price graph that will look like something out of Woodstock or China just before the Opium Wars. Say we introduce color in the mix. As the z-axis gets more vivid in color, the price jumps exponentially as well, but not in jumps. Color affects price exponentially and smoothly, so as our diamond price graph is expanding like a staircase up to 6 carats, the staircase is curving sharply up as we move along the z-axis of color. In order to graph this diamond price function, you’ll need a TI-89 at least, if it’s still called that ever since I graduated high school.

The clarity also pushes diamond prices up exponentially, but in order to graph that, we would need to be in hyperspace, a four-dimensional world that we don’t have access to as three-dimensional beings. The clarity, by the way, is the physical perfection of the stone, whether there are impurities, cracks, or other interferences in the lattice. The clearer, the pricier thediamond price.

Finally there is cut. Since people like sparkles, they are willing to pay more for a more sparkly stone. The more proportional the cut is, the more it refracts light and the more it sparkles, and the higher the diamond price. Cuts vary from poor to ideal, again increasing geometrically with each grading. Conclusion, don’t buy the perfect diamond. Too costly, and too much karma, or ayin harah, as they say in Hebrew. Read The Pearl by Steinbeck to learn more about that.

I recently went to a doctor, and I live in a so-called “can do” state where medicine is socialized and centralized. One of the sad side effects of centralized government-controlled medicine is that doctors stop thinking and become robots of the Health Ministry. When I went to the doctor, I wanted a certain test done. He said that the Health Ministry doesn’t recommend the test. I asked him what he thought, personally, as a doctor who knows medicine and who was trained and educated to heal. He repeated that the Health Ministry doesn’t recommend the test. I can of course look up health ministry policy myself. What I can’t do is be a doctor. In the realm of health care, having a centralized bureaucracy is not such a good thing. But in the realm of jewelry, it’s a pretty good idea to have diamond certificates.

Here’s the difference. Health care is not a static enterprise. It’s elastic, and each case is different from the next. There is no strict rubric, only general guidelines that are interpreted by every individual doctor. With diamond certificates, everything is rigid, static, and unchanging. There is an exact rubric for diamond certificates based on the quality of a diamond which can be measured exactly with good tools and expert skill. In other words, those who issue diamond certificates are not making an estimation or a value judgment. They are simply describing the certified diamond and telling you want it is in reality, and issuing a diamond certificate in accordance with the objective value they determine. In that case, having that institution issue a diamond certificate does not mean it’s thinking for you. It’s only examining reality with tools that you do not have and giving you a number.

It is a profoundly bad idea to purchase any diamond that is not a certified diamond and does not come with a diamond certificate. First and foremost because it may not even be a diamond, but rather may be a simulated diamond or a synthetic diamond. Secondly, without a centralized grading system, there would be no agreed upon price for diamonds. With diamond certificates, the industry is regulated and cheating becomes a lot harder. Perhaps Zoara can explain it better why these certificates are so important. Read about diamond certification on their site if you are still not convinced.

The three most reliable institutes that issue diamond certificates are the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the Diamond High Council of Belgium (HRD), and the American Gem Society Laboratories (AGSL). Before you purchase a diamond, make absolutely sure it carries a diamond certificate from of those institutions. A non certified diamond is a risk to your wallet you don’t have to take.

But when it comes to health care, forget about the Health Ministry. Ask your doctor what he thinks. If he refuses to think, get another doctor immediately.

Diamond Brokers.  Such a name probably sends chills up peoples’ spines as it brings memories of the mot recent stock market meltdown.  However, these individuals are not the same as those people on Wall Street.  A diamond broker is someone who sells diamonds, usually at a wholesale price and quite frankly can be your best friend when purchasing a diamond.

Diamond brokers officially serve as middlemen for purchasing and selling diamonds.  They charge fees, but that’s the nature of the business.  However, diamond brokers also usually have some experience appraising, cutting, mounting and examining diamonds.  The ideal diamond broker has GIA or HRD training, that being training from the Gemological Institute of America or the Hode Raad voor de Diamant which is essentially the Belgian equivalent.  The training they have is the ability to recognize, examine and classify diamonds.  Any other skills diamond brokers have are most likely from work experience.

Who do diamond brokers deal with?  Pretty much everyone in the industry, from miners to jewelry store owners.  Diamond brokers usually have contacts all over the world, typically in New York, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and most importantly, Antwerp, the diamond capital of the world.  So diamond brokers know the trends and what products are available.

Why is it a good idea to use a broker when you want to sell or more importantly, buy a diamond?  The reason is quite simple.  Your diamond broker will be able to negotiate a reasonable price for a diamond which saves you money by contacting the seller directly.  In addition, if you are looking for a specific type of diamond with a particular cut and color (such as a princess cut colorless diamond or a round cut pink diamond), a diamond broker will have the time and resources to track down the stone you want.  After all, it is what he is paid to do.  Finally, it’s a good idea to use a diamond brokerbecause he will be able to educate you about diamonds and what you should know about them.

However, since there are dishonest people, it is important to check that your diamond broker actually has the credentials he claims to have.  You can do this by checking with the GIA or with past clients.    If you can be wary and careful, you can save a huge amount of money and learn quite bit about diamonds via a diamond broker.

Let’s face it. The allure of a diamond is not only its beauty, rarity, and unique chemical properties. The real reason that diamonds are so beloved is that they are a piece of Earth history, formed over literally billions of years. When you wear a real diamond, you are wearing a stone that has been around nearly since the formation of planet Earth itself. Such a concept is oddly very comforting and gives the feeling of immortality. Cultured diamonds, on the other hand, though they are chemically identical, are nonetheless not a piece of Earth history. Cultured diamonds are created over a process of a mere three and a half days.

The two biggest companies involved in synthesizing cultured diamonds are Apollo and Gemesis. The process of formation of cultured diamonds itself is fascinating and deserves an overlook. Cultured diamonds are made in a superhot, superpressurized room using seed crystals, or diamond chips that can serve as a basis for the growth of the diamond and settling of carbon, atom by atom, into the lattice structure. The cultured diamond process begins with a plasma cloud, a superheated organic gas, usually methane, being the lightest Below the cloud is a diamond seed, which, as the carbon atoms from the superheated gas become excited and start bouncing around, they look for a more stable, less energetic place to settle. The diamond shard just below serves nicely. The cultured diamond begins to grow, atom by atom, until after three days, it builds into anything between a half carat and .75 carat stone.  For those who simply want to wear a diamond,cultured diamonds like these are fine. But for those who want to wear a piece of pre-history, cultured diamonds will not do.

For this reason, there are ways of differentiating natural diamond from cultured diamond. Reputable jewelers, first of all, are trained to do this, and they will not lie to you and risk ruining their reputation, unless they are in cahoots with Apollo or Gemesis, which is unlikely. On the side edge of any cultured diamond larger than a quarter carat is inscribed the name of the company, either Gemesis or Apollo, that created it. These companies do not attempt to pass their cultured diamonds off as natural ones.

Any diamond that is certified by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), will have a certification that it is not a cultured diamond. The GIA is very vigilant about this. All in all, one need not worry. If you are content in sporting a cultured diamond, power to you. If you’d rather wear the product of billions of years of geology, stick to natural diamonds.

If you’ve ever bought a diamond ring for any reason, such as for an anniversary, engagement or wedding, you know that process is stressful and ridiculously complicated as well as being treacherous because of dishonest practices.  For those looking for certified loose diamonds, the path is even more complicated and dangerous.

When looking for certified loose diamonds, it is important to keep in mind the four C’s, shapes, cuts and grading.  In addition to this, the process is for getting a diamond certified is complicated and is usually done by an expert who knows what he or she is doing.  The process essentially amounts to a thorough examination of the diamond and all its various properties.  The certificate for the certified loose diamond is a report with a summary of the examination.  It’s a good idea to research the person or company you are buying your certified loose diamond from in order to make sure he’s not giving you a worthless piece of paper in addition to what might be nothing more than a piece of glass.  If you have more time, you should research everything about diamonds so that you can choose a certified loose diamond and not get ripped off.

Why is it important to have a certified loose diamond as opposed to one that is not?  For insurance and sales purposes as well as bragging rights.  If you spent approximately $2000 on a loose diamond, it would be a travesty if something happened to that diamond.  Thus, it’s a really good idea to have insurance.  However, most insurance companies require a certificate in order to give any sort of coverage.  So in order to ensure that your loose diamond doesn’t disappear and you loose $2000, having a certified loose diamond is a good idea.  This way, if something happens to your certified loose diamond, you can collect the value of the diamond from the insurance company and purchase another.  In addition, if you want to sell your loose diamond later on, having a certified loose diamond will ensure you can secure a fair price.  Finally, if you have acertified loose diamond, you can claim bragging rights for owning a gem that has papers much like a show dog or a purebred cat.

In addition to all of this, a certified loose diamond will save you money if you intend to crate a piece of jewelry with it later on as you will only have to buy the setting and nothing else.  Thus, if you intend to buy a loose diamond, buy a certified loose diamond.  It’ll save you a lot of time and aggravation in the future.

Canada has only been a recognized abundant source of diamonds since 1991. Canadian diamonds currently make up an estimated 15% of world output, with vast more estimated in reserves. Canadian diamonds are now the third most common source, rivaling Russia and Botswana. Since 1991 and the birth of the Canadian diamond industry, Canadian diamondshave been in high demand due to the clean practices that surround their mining and extraction. In other words, withCanadian diamonds you will be hardpressed to trace back and find violent rebel armies armed to the teeth with weapons 1,000 years beyond their culture shooting each other and forcing enslaved children to mine the mineral that funds their constant wars. Canadian diamonds, since they have nothing to do with Africa, are mined in an area more or less free of conflict and grant people an honest living.

The African rebel armies know this, too, which is why they try to pass their diamonds along as Canadian diamonds. They put pictures of majestic glaciers on the packaging, maybe a Canadian moose or elk or some other huge animal roaming in the arctic, and then say it’s from Canada. What a consumer must know before purchasing a Canadian diamond is that the only thing that certifies a Canadian Diamond is the Government of the Northwest Territories Certification (GNWT).

Aside from a Canadian diamond certificate, which, with enough determination, can be forged, each Canadian diamond has a microscopic laser-cut serial number on it indicating which Canadian diamond mine it came from. Technically speaking an engraved impurity on a diamond lowers its value, but for this purpose it has become accepted not to “count” this imperfection as a value slasher. The serial number is inscribed directly on the diamond’s girdle, or brim, the edge between the flatter top and the pointed bottom of the stone. To be completely safe, you should make sure that the Canadian diamonds you buy have both the GNWT certificate and the laser-inscribed serial number.

Besides Canadian diamonds, Australia has been discovered as a significant source of diamond ore, currently making it much easier to purchase a diamond that is not a conflict diamond. The Argyle mine in Australia produces 35 million carats of diamonds (about 7,000 kg) a year, and interestingly 80% of them are brown. 90% of the world’s pink diamonds, as well, come from Australia. So, if you own a pink or brown diamond, you can be safe in assuming that it probably is not a conflict diamond.

Apollo Diamonds is a Diamond Manufacturer Company based in Boston, MA.  The company was started by Robert Linares, who developed the compound used in cell phone batteries.  Apollo Diamonds gained its fame and notoriety in the diamond industry and around the globe for their breakthrough invention of a diamond formation process called Chemical Vapor Deposition, or CVD.

In CVD, Apollo Diamonds workers rain carbon atoms place a seed of diamond roughly the size of a small button in a sealed chamber.  Then workers “rain” carbon upon the seed to create near perfect cultured diamonds.  These diamonds can be used in nanotechnology and optometry as well as sold in the jewelry market.

Why are Apollo Diamonds so notorious?  Because their process of diamond formation has threatened to wreak havoc upon the entire diamond retail industry.  Dealers in Antwerp as well as around the globe don’t like the idea of growing diamonds in a laboratory – which Apollo Diamonds does – because this will make the price of diamonds drop considerably.  The fallout, to quote a merchant in Antwerp, “Would bankrupt the entire industry.”  In response, the retail diamond market, specifically those dealers in Antwerp, have reacted by insisting that Apollo Diamonds’ product is fake.  They also have built machines to prove that Apollo diamonds are fake and thus return the market to its status quo with obscenely high-priced diamonds.  However, American diamond dealers don’t care and are more than happy to sell Apollo Diamonds’ product because in their view, it is quite simple:  A diamond is a diamond regardless of where it was created.

Apollo diamonds seems pretty determined to sell their cultured diamonds as jewelry and thus have acceded to the demands of the diamond market that they admit their product is not natural and certify it as such.  Whether or not Apollo Diamonds will be successful depends on their ability to market and whether the diamond industry grows up, stops acting like children bickering with an eight year olds’ “I know you’re not, but what am I” attitude and recognizes that Apollo Diamonds’ product isn’t attempting to bankrupt them, especially because Apollo Diamonds also produces diamonds for other industries that these old school dealers probably rely on such as optometry equipment for examining diamonds and glasses to see with.

In short, Apollo Diamonds is posed to revolutionize the diamond market.  The only question is: Can they do it?