Courses, Labs & Certificates

To learn diamond grading properly, you take a course. By common agreement the two finest schools are GIA and HRD.

• GIA, the Gemological Institute of America, is the best-known reference in gemology. It offers both advanced diamond-grading courses and complete gemological educations.
• HRD, the Antwerp Institute of Gemology, offers the same and is especially well reputed for diamonds — and, more particularly, for rough diamonds.

Why a certificate

A diamond’s value rests on its precise characteristics, and a laboratory report is what puts those characteristics beyond dispute. Until you can read a stone with confidence yourself, that independent assessment is what tells you, plainly, what you are paying for and what it is worth. So when you have your eye on a stone and want to be sure of it, the sound approach is the simple one: choose a diamond that comes already certified, then take its report to the issuing laboratory and have the grades confirmed at the source.

Both GIA and HRD keep their reports on file and open to lookup, so the reference number on any certificate can be matched against the laboratory’s own record at any time. A grade you can confirm is a grade you can trust.