A Lady comes into the Jewelry Store looking to
Trade In her Diamond Engagement Ring because
it was dull and didn't sparkle.
The Appraisal she got with the Ring said her Diamond was a 1.00 Carat, Round Brilliant Cut Diamond, SI1 Clarity, G Color. Not too bad really!
So I start showing her loose Diamonds, G.I.A. Certified, Round Brilliant Cuts, over 1.00 Carats in size. VVS, VS, E-F Color no doubt. Just outstanding Diamonds.
Right away she notices one thing. Her 1.00 Carat Diamond looked really small. Our 1.25 Carat Diamond didn't just look a little bigger than hers did, but it actually looked twice as big!
It didn't make her happy
She started to get really curious about her Diamond and then she started to compare hers to the One Carat Solitaires we have in our Showcases.
Her Diamond looked visibly smaller than all of them. She started to panic thinking she got ripped off and the Jeweler lied about the Carat Weight and Scammed her over the Size of her Diamond. To her it looked like a 3/4 Carat Diamond instead of a Full Carat.
I looked at her Diamond Appraisal, which is just a typed piece of paper on the Jeweler's Letterhead. Not a good sign, it's not Certified! The Appraisal clearly states that her Diamond is in fact 1.01 Carats. Hmmm, very interesting!
I can tell the customer is about to have a nervous break down. She's thinking maybe they Switched her Diamond during sizing, or that the Jeweler just lied about the Diamond's Size during purchase. She was upset, and scared, and it was up to me to calm the customer down.
Measure the Diamond
First thing I do is get the Millimeter Guage. This is the Diamond Guage that Jewelers use to measure the width of Diamonds and Gemstones. I measure her 1.00 Carat Diamond. It comes up smaller than a normal 1.00 Carat of course.
The Guage reads 6.0 MM instead of 6.5 MM. But I can't get a great reading of the entire Diamond because it's buried in the mounting. So if I can't see the bottom of the Diamond, I can't measure it. Without seeing the Culet, or the point of the Diamond, there's no true way to measure the Depth of the stone accurately.
The Depth of the Diamond, which on a good Cut should be 3.97 MM, isn't listed on the Appraisal either. But I already knew that. Usually only Certified Diamonds list this type of detailed information.
What's Wrong?
I suspect a couple things are up with the Cut of the Diamond because the Crown of the Diamond sits up high and is chunky. Plus the Diamond's Girdle is extremely thick to very thick all the way around. I would guess from these two indications, that her Diamond is what they call a "Deep Stone".
I explain this to the customer. I tell her that the only way to truly get the Carat Weight of her Diamond, other than approximating, is to have the stone removed from the mounting and weighed on a precision Jeweler's Diamond Scale. That's the only way to be exact!
So what does the customer do? Read on...
