GUEST: Well, I brought my engagement ring, which was given to me about 35 years ago, I guess. My fiancé and I were trying to decide what kind of ring to get, and he very generously offered to take me to New York City, so we went to New York and went to meet an elderly gentleman who sold stones. And out of his safe, he brought many little packets of white paper and unrolled them all and showed me so many different things, and this is the stone I picked.
APPRAISER: Oh, I see. And what attracted you to this stone?
GUEST: Well, I think the color was really striking. I didn't know anything about... much about colored stones, and there were a lot of very pretty white diamonds, but when he told me this was a diamond and I saw that it had color to it, I just was amazed by that. I had no idea.
APPRAISER: And so, can you tell me what you know about it?
GUEST: Well, I know that it is almost 3.4 carats, and somewhere in the abyss of my house there is the certificate from the Gemological Institute. I just remember the words "intense" and I think "fancy," because I had never seen those words associated with jewelry, so it stuck in my mind.
APPRAISER: And have you had any kind of appraisal done on this stone before?
GUEST: I have not. I picked the stone and I did not know what the cost was.
APPRAISER: Well, it's great to have the Gemological certificate, and it sounds like they said it was fancy intense yellow. When did you get the certificate? How long ago did you get it?
GUEST: Well, it came shortly after we got the stone, so the certificate must have been 1976, '77, somewhere in there.
APPRAISER: Some grading standards have changed, especially for color diamonds, since then, so I think sometimes it's worthwhile to have the stone resubmitted and have them reevaluate the color. It may come out a little different, but I can't imagine it grading any lower than a fancy intense yellow.
GUEST: So there's higher grades than fancy intense?
APPRAISER: Yes, yes.
GUEST: I see.
APPRAISER: Within yellow diamonds, you can go from light yellow, fancy light yellow, fancy yellow, fancy intense, fancy vivid and fancy deep.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: So that's where it falls in the range. But it's a really beautiful color. The yellow color is really impressive. Our opinion was that it was easily fancy intense. There's a possibility it could grade fancy vivid, no guarantee. And the clarity of the stone is very nice. The cut of the stone is a modern round brilliant cut.
GUEST: Oh, I see.
APPRAISER: If it were to grade, again, a fancy intense or better, natural yellow diamond, I could easily see this selling for about $140,000 to $160,000.
GUEST: Oh, my God! Oh, my gosh! I just can't even believe that!
APPRAISER: It's a really beautiful stone. It's a really special stone.
GUEST: Oh, I can't believe it. I'm not going to be able to get up out of my chair.
