AGS
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AGS Diamond Certification
The AGS (American Gem Society) prides itself on being the original lab to provide diamond cut grades. Long before the GIA introduced their cut grade a few years ago, the AGS has been offering its unique cut grade scale from 0 to 9 (with 0 being termed “ideal”). Back in those days, the AGS had the monopoly on the “ideal cut” market. A diamond couldn’t be called “ideal” unless it has an AGS certificate claiming so. Now that the GIA has entered the cut grade game, though, their market share in this market has dropped significantly. Now, just as much people sell “triple X’s” (Polish, Symmetry, and Cut grades all receiving “Excellent” from the GIA) as they do “triple 0′s” (a “0″ is the AGS equivalent of a GIA “Excellent”).
AGS vs GIA
The AGS generally tries to bill itself as being a bit more fancy and refined than the GIA. But the fact is there is hardly anything at all to distinguish the two except for the fact that the AGS is generally slightly looser than the GIA. Most large diamond companies recognize this and take diamonds that don’t receive the intended grade and send them to AGS in order to receive an upgrade in clarity and color. Usually in those circumstances they succeed. Unlike the EGL, however, there isn’t much of a market-wide consensus to this fact, so generally diamonds certified by the AGS sell at similar prices to their GIA equivalents. If I had to suggest an average color and clarity upgrade from GIA, I would estimate a half a grade.
All in all, though, the AGS is a fairly reliable laboratory.
If you have any questions, please post them in the comments below. I will usually respond within 24 hours.
How does ABCG compare to GIA , AGS AND ELG for grading. Im looking for a yellow diamond ring. Tnanks for your help.
Never heard of ABCG. That’s a very bad sign. Avoid at all costs.
when Gia started no one heard of them as well , I happen to have bought an abcg diamond and it was d color and vvs1 clarity and guess what I almost paid half of what Gia cost and the diamond is as described , Gia is simply a brand name and they make millions of dollars in profit. bottom Line it’s all about the money
Mark Levine who wrote this comment is a principal at MDC Diamonds – just for disclosure’s sake so readers understand where this comment is coming from. A quick glance at their site will show you that they sell a number of different certificates, including one I have never heard of before, “EGS.”
Firstly, GIA is a non-profit. Secondly, I can assure any readers that if the stone he bought was purchased for half of what a GIA D VVS1 costs, then the stone was worth half of what a GIA D VVS1 costs. Diamond dealers are extremely shrewd and highly skilled at squeezing every bit of profit out of a stone as possible. Nobody in this business would ever let such an expensive rare stone go for 50% less using a lower quality cert. Meaning, if it’s as he says it is, that the stone is really a D VVS1, why in the world would a company certify the stone with a no-name hard-to-sell certificate that’s only going to fetch 50% of what they can get with a market-wide accepted GIA cert? Don’t tell me because the cert “costs less” or because “they deliver the cert faster.” $50 and 3 weeks cannot make up for what would amount to about $10,000 on a 1ct stone of this quality.
Actually, AGS has a reputation for more stringent grading compared to GIA.
I can only conclude that the above article is not from a GIA independent source.
I can’t comment on any “reputation.” I can only comment on my personal direct experience seeing tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of stones certified by AGS and GIA. It was very clear to me and everyone else in the company in which I worked that AGS was slightly more lenient than GIA. Their “reputation” was created by the fact that they’re sold in general by higher end stores – but the fact is that they’re looser than GIA.