Is the IGI certificate as reliable as GIA or HRD certificate?
The International Federation of Diamond Bourses in their 1978 report accepts IGI as an equal to the longer existing GIA or HRD. Being a newcomer in those days, IGI was being looked at with suspicion, and that is why – even nowadays – some people still refer to IGI as a lab too young to be good. Ironically, IGI today faces more discussions with dis-satisfied diamond dealers than HRD or GIA does, for it is their feeling that IGI’s grading system has become too severe, both for colour as for clarity. According to some diamond websites, the impression is given that GIA is the ‘only’ consistent grader: however, GIA’s main share holder is Mr Robert Mouawad who is involved in many a diamond company. This has given some people in the diamond community more than once the feeling that a conflict of interest could arise from this potental mix of diamond selling with diamond grading. The recent GIA scandal in 2005 of diamond misgradings for some very large diamonds will do nothing to quell such co
