Is my Diamond Real?

Valerie: Is my diamond real? I got it at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I was always afraid I’d bought a Zircon.

Geoffrey Dominy: No, it’s real. It’s real.

Valerie: OK. Now, tell me something, because I think that people do get nervous with their jewellery. I’ve heard the expression “growing diamonds”. What does that mean?

Geoffrey Dominy: It’s another term for switching diamonds and what would happen is the dishonest jeweler would take the, let’s say, 25 point diamond, wait for a slightly larger stone to come in, of similar quality, let’s say a 28 point diamond, switch the two diamonds. Then he’d wait for a 31 point diamond to come in, switch those diamonds and if he was really dishonest and quite busy he could go very quickly from a quarter carat diamond to a one carat diamond. That’s the term “growing diamonds”.

Valerie: Interesting because people might think oh, well, they might switch it for something fake, a Zircon, but what they’re doing is switching it for a slightly smaller stone.

Geoffrey Dominy: Exactly. Exactly. The way to safeguard it is make sure you have an appraisal done by a competent appraiser, not just a gemologist but someone who has years of experience, someone who has years of experience diamond grading, take a copy of the appraisal to the jeweler, make sure the jeweler comfortable that what he’s accepting matches up with the actual document. And that way you’ll resolve all these problems, there won’t be the same problems that are out there.

Valerie: Well, do you know that it happens?

Geoffrey Dominy: Yes, it does happen. It happened to me, actually.

Valerie: Someone tried to… ?

Geoffrey Dominy: Yeah, I had a jeweler…

Valerie: … rob you.. ? And you… ohh!

Geoffrey Dominy: Yes. I was very nice. I told him I had… I took the actual ring back and told him “I think you’ve probably given me the wrong diamond". I should have actually phoned the police. Been a little bit more…

Valerie: Called the police.

Geoffrey Dominy: Yeah. Yeah.

Valerie: Interesting. So, get it properly appraised. Keep the appraisal. Be up front about it, everybody knows what the stone looks like…

Geoffrey Dominy: Exactly. No one wants to be falsely accused and no consumer wants to have their diamond switched.

Valerie: Thank you!

Geoffrey Dominy: You’re welcome.

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