Clarification/Follow-up by Silvercrescent on 02/21/05 4:36 am:
Hello JLBCO--

Thank you very much for the superfast answer--I truly appreciated it! It is good to hear that my suspicions are not totally groundless, and I will pay attention to the tips you gave me when I finally get to see the stone/s. At the moment, all I have seen is the faxed report of the stone I have mentioned. I live outside USA, so it is unfortunately not possible for me to find someone with an AGS certificate here (I am in Turkey).

Incidentally, my jeweller sent me the HRD report of yet another stone. It is a lot larger than what I plan to buy, but I cannot resist the temptation to ask you what you think about it. Here are the stats for it.

Shape: brilliant
weight: 2.23 ct.
clarity grade: vs2
fluorescence: slight
color gradeL white (H)
measurements: 8.54 x 8.57 mm x 5.06 mm
proportions: very good
girdle: medium 3% faceted
culet: pointed
table width: 59%
cr height: 13.0%
pav. depth: 43.0%
finish grade: very good
clarity grade: vs2
color grade: white

To my knowledge, normally fluorescence in diamonds is not desirable, and this stone seems to be problematic because of it. My jeweller recommends me against buying it because of this condition, too. But, on the other hand, it does seem to have better proportions, and I have heard that for fluorescence "whitens" slightly tinted (maybe J and above?) stones. This stone is an H, but I thought it might help it a bit in that regard. Finally, the cost: $18,400. What do you think?

Clarification/Follow-up by Silvercrescent on 02/21/05 8:17 am:

Yes, JLBCO--I did ask you about buying a five stone band a few months ago. Wonderful memory! I considered mentioning our earlier correspondence in my previous message, but then decided against it--I am already consuming enough of your time, which you are offering so generously. My fiance does not know a lot about gems, so I do the stone shopping for the wedding and he buys them. Incidentally, for my engagement band, I ended up with five .30 round cut H color stones with VS clarity from the same jeweller (total 1.57cts). The stones cost us $3050, I think. I guess I could have bought it for a better price in USA, but it was the optimum price we could get here. And the stones sparkle alright, so I am content with my purchase.

Picking up the perfect stone, as you have pointed out, takes time, but ironically, it is one thing that we seem to be running out here. Our wedding is scheduled to take place on March 26, and tradition demands that he puts the stone on my finger that day. We haven't come across with that many stones here so far, though. The ones that we regularly encounter here are already mounted, and some jewellers' knowledge on what they are selling is abysmal. As I am not entirely happy with the stats for the first (1.70) stone, I plan to ask this guy to find me something else; preferably soon (he argues that it takes time for him to find a stone this size--is it really true that finding stones over a carat is getting difficult? I keep running into them everywhere on the net). But if it comes to worst (meaning, if he cannot come up with anything else by our wedding and we cannot find anything elsewhere in Turkey either), would you think that it is worth stretching out our diamond budget real hard and try to shoot for the HRD 2.23 ct. one? Do you think that it would be a decent buy? How I wish I could be in the States to buy this stone--life would have been so much easier..

Thanks,
Silvercrescent