Is Your Jewelry at Risk?

Now that you have taken the time to choose the perfect gift, whether to commemorate a special occasion or just to wear and enjoy, is your prized possession properly protected? Unfortunately, the answer is probably no. This article will educate you on getting your jewelry properly appraised, including who is qualified to appraise your jewelry, what an appraisal should contain, insuring your jewelry, common misconceptions about jewelry insurance and how jewelry claims are handled. Since you have taken the time to choose the perfect piece of jewelry, I strongly recommend you take the time to read this article to protect your purchase.

How do I choose a professional appraiser?

This is actually a bit trickier than you may think. Unfortunately ANYONE may present themselves to the public as a personal property appraiser. Only real property appraisers (real estate) are licensed, which leaves it up to you to qualify the appraiser that you retain. This applies to all forms of personal property, but this article will focus on jewelry only. Because there is so much confusion about the jewelry industry regarding who is and does what we will start this guide with some different titles and definitions of those titles to help raise your understanding of the jewelry industry.

The professional appraiser

Working within the jewelry industry by buying and selling jewelry does not make one an appraiser, nor should appraising be treated as an inalienable right that comes with the job. Appraising is a profession, just as a doctor, lawyer, or CPA, where one must be educated and tested. Unfortunately, as of today, there is no overseeing body to administer government testing and licensing (just like dentistry before the American Dental Association was formed), therefore, anyone can hold himself or herself out as a personal property appraiser. BEWARE! It is up to you to separate the “quacks” from the professionals.

A professional personal property appraiser will have a high level of education backed with a high level of experience and product knowledge. A professional will have taken and passed courses and prescribed examinations in evaluation and valuation, principles and business practices, appraisal ethics, standards and report writing. This type of professional will also keep up with the standards and changes through rigorous continuing education. Membership held within a professional appraisal organization is a good indicator of the appraisers’ commitment to their clients.

However, please keep in mind that not all organizations are equal! Not all organizations requirements are at par with the levels and standards that are all too important today. First, you must ask the appraiser how their designations are earned. Some organizations give titles for just paying their dues! Ask them what their level of membership is within the organization and what it took for them to earn that level of membership. You will also want to ask how often they have to retest to maintain their level of membership and what the testing involves. Some organizations “grandfather” their members. Grandfathering means that they pass one test and never have to be retested. This is not acceptable an organization must retest its members at least every five years to ensure that they stay current and up to date in regards to changes within the profession.

Quack: Slang term for a self proclaimed “appraiser” with no proper or formal appraisal and gemological education or training. The “quack” also has a blatant disregard for “due diligence”, theory, methodology and, worst of all, their clients.

Jeweler (Bench Jeweler): Working within the jewelry industry does not make one a jeweler by default. A jeweler is a craftsman or artisan who has the ability and expertise to manufacture and, or repair jewelry. This ability comes from apprenticeship and, or educational institutions.

Graduate Jeweler (GJ): Same as above but the jeweler has completed all courses and passed all of the prescribed examinations of the Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) manufacturing arts program. 

Lapidary (stone cutter): One who cuts, facets, and or polishes colored gemstones or diamonds.

Lapidary Artist: (gem artist): One who has abilities that go over and above a lapidary. These artists sculpt and carve gemstones along with being the most talented in the field.

Graduate Gemologist (GG): One who has taken and passed all courses and prescribed examinations (Theory and Practical) of the (GIA) Graduate Gemologist program. Should have the ability to identify and grade gemstones. This does not make one an appraiser or jeweler.

Fellow of the Gemological Association of Great Britain (FGA): One who has taken and passed all courses and prescribed examinations (Theory and Practical) of the (GAGB) FGA program. Should have the ability to identify and grade gemstones. This does not make one an appraiser or jeweler.

Horologist (Watchmaker): One who has been trained either by a school or apprenticeship and has the ability to manufacture watch parts, rebuild, and, or repair watches. Changing watch batteries does not make one a watchmaker.

Certified Horologist: Same as above but the Horologist has taken and passed all courses and prescribed examinations of an educational institution along with passing a state certification exam on theory and practical horology.

Watch Repairman: A person that can do basic watch repair, but has no formal education or training and has not passed any examinations. This is not a horologist.

Jewelry Wholesaler: One who sells to retail jewelers. There are a lot of retailers that misrepresent themselves as wholesalers. This is incorrect. A wholesale transaction is between a wholesale dealer, jobber or manufacturer to a retail entity for resale. A sale to the final consumer is a retail transaction. A true wholesaler would never sell to the public due to the risk of losing their wholesale accounts. Thought. If a person is dishonest about how their business is actually run, then how honest do you think they really are in regards to the product that they are trying to sell?

Jewelry Retailer: One who sells to the public (final consumer). The jewelry retailer takes on many different forms (e.g. chain stores, family owned stores, estate jewelry dealers, and discount outlet type stores). This does not make one an appraiser or jeweler.

Sales Associate: One who works as a sales person. This does not make one an appraiser or jeweler.

Beware of false profits!

I have only listed a few of the titles that are out there within the industry. There are many different companies and societies that issue “titles” for paying membership dues or for sitting in on a few hour lecture and taking a less than taxing “exam”. If someone represents “designations” to you, then it is up to you to find out what they mean and how they were earned. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that hold themselves out as being “Certified” that are actually not certified in anything, other than holding a degree in BS, and I don’t mean Bachelor of Science!

I do not need all of those pieces of paper hanging on my wall, nor do I need to attend classes! I have been in the jewelry industry for thirty years.
If you hear statements such as the one above, I advise you to try to find another person to appraise your jewelry. It is this “Ignorance is Bliss” attitude that puts consumers and insurance companies in harm’s way, to the tune of millions of dollars a year, whether purchasing or insuring jewelry. A “base” degree is never enough. Continuing education is the only answer. Just one example is the changes in gemstone synthesis and enhancements. They are as continuously increasing as are changes to computers. Therefore without continuing education one is more than likely less than informed about current synthesis and enhancements, along with the guidelines regarding them.

How much does an appraisal cost?

As professional appraisers, we go through this scenario time and time again. When we quote our fees we all to often hear that “ I just talked to another “jeweler” and the appraisal was going to be $25 or free of charge.” I will caution you that these $25 “appraisals” are worth just that: $25. A competent professional appraiser will charge appropriate rates for the time and work involved to do the job properly. When you retain a professional appraiser, you are retaining a professional and must pay for that. When you hire a professional, you are insuring that your personal property assets are properly protected. Think about it: if you have a valuable item, one worthy of protection, then a proper appraisal will be worth much more than the appraiser will charge. The small premium you pay now is far less than what you will lose in aggravation, time, insurance premiums, and loss of dollars if you ever have an insurance claim and your appraisal was done by an unqualified appraiser. This also reduces the risk of having your claim denied due to misrepresentation of material fact due to a quack appraisal. On average, consumers pay an additional 40% per item, per year more than they should due to unqualified appraisers and appraisals.

How do you know if the appraiser is a professional?

Ask. All too often, the only question that is asked by consumers when trying to retain an appraiser is: ”How much do you charge?” The question that you should ask is: “What qualifies you to appraise my property?” The professional appraiser will not be offended by this question, but rather welcome it. This is not as short of a question as it may seem, but it is rather a multi part question.

Listed below in order are the questions you should be asking.

1. Are you a Graduate Gemologist or a Fellow of the Gemological Association of Great Britain?
2. Are you a member of a professional personal property appraisal organization?
   An example would be the International Society of Appraisers.
3. What is your level of membership within the organization? How did you obtain that level of membership? Did you have to take courses and pass a comprehensive examination, or did you just have to pay dues?
   Remember one may be a member of an organization and yet may not have taken their courses or passed the prescribed exams. Other organizations have almost no educational criteria to obtain designations they just exchange “Dollars for Diplomas”.
4. How often do you have to take a requalification course and pass a requalification exam? What does the requalification course and exam consist of?
5. How many hours of continuing education courses do you attend per year? How many of these hours are appraisal specific and how many are gemological and jewelry specific?
6. Do you stay current on industry guidelines and research, along with local and federal laws?
7. What are your specialty areas?
   Remember no one is an expert on everything. There are many types of jewelry. Here is a list of areas that may pertain to the type of jewelry that you may own and will want appraised, and you will want to know if they are qualified to handle it.

• Diamonds: Natural vs. synthetic, modern cuts, old cuts (old mine, old European, rose, and transitional), fancy colored (natural vs. enhanced), Ideal cuts, and enhanced (fracture filled, laser drilled, HTHP color enhanced).
• Colored Gemstones: Natural vs. synthetic, gemstone enhancements (fracture filling, heat treatment, glass infilling, deep diffusion treatment, coating, irradiation, paraffin coating, dye, and assembled stones. Note there are many more enhancements and the majority of gemstones on the market today are enhanced. You want to address how the enhancements will be reported within the appraisal. Rare colored gemstones, origin (the country of origin can play a major role in the value of the gemstone)
• Pearls: Natural vs. cultured vs. assembled, freshwater or saltwater, (over the past two years, there has been a flooding in the market- place of Chinese freshwater pearls that mirror saltwater Akoya pearls and they can be worth a fraction of the price). Natural color v. dyed or irradiated, South Sea (white & Tahitian), American freshwater, abalone, seed, keshi, and mabé.
• Jadeite: Natural vs. simulants. “A” vs. “B” vs. “C” vs. “D”. ”A” jade is natural with just a wax finishing, “B” jade has been acid “bleached” and polymer impregnated, “C” jade has been dyed, while “D” jade has been acid “bleached”, polymer impregnated, and dyed. ” (a fine green one-inch “A” jade carving can be worth thousands of dollars while a similar looking “B” jade carving is usually worth less than a couple hundred dollars)
• Metals: 9kt, 10kt, 14kt, 18kt, 20+kt, yellow v. white, platinum, rhodium, silver, gold filled, gold plated etc. Testing metals and manufacturing process (cast, hand fabrication, die struck, machined)
• General jewelry: Mass-produced vs. custom, antique and period vs. reproductions and “married” pieces (period with modern parts and/ or converted pieces) modern, along with quality assessment. Enamels and inlays.
• Watches: Pocket and wrist, modern and period, condition analysis, authentic vs. fake or after-market parts.
• Hallmarks and Trademarks: Manufacture’s marks (a piece made by Cartier is more valuable than the same piece as an unknown)
• Accessories: Compacts, chatelaines, cigarette cases and lighters.

More questions

1. What equipment do you own and what will be used to evaluate my jewelry?
   A microscope is usually never enough. Probably the biggest problem today is the use of “CZ” color master stones. You must never accept an appraisal that is done using anything other than a certified diamond master set containing at least five diamonds. A certified master diamond set is comprised of diamonds that meet specific criteria to be considered master stones. This does not mean that stones that have grading reports on them are master stones. According to the GIA Insider electronic newsletter: “Caution: Even though you have a diamond with a GIA Diamond Grading Report, you should never use it to grade the color of other diamonds. Remember that the diamond’s color is placed in a color range, and the report does not indicate where in the range it falls.”
   It is imperative that you ask to see a copy of the master set certification. CZ color fades over time and the crystal structure and chemical composition is different and therefore the stones look different. Below is a list of equipment that you will want to ask about and every competent appraiser should have or have access to most of this equipment: Binocular 10–60x microscope with darkfield illuminator, fully corrected 10x triplet loupe, diamond light, pen light, long and short wave ultraviolet light, GIA certified diamond color master set, GIA gem set, GemDialogue, cultured pearl master set, fiber optic lighting, dichroscope, spectroscope, polariscope with interference figure sphere, refractometer, specific gravity fluids, methylene iodide, filters and lenses, Leveridge gauge, electronic Leveridge gauge or micrometer, electronic scale measuring carat, gram, and pennyweight, hydrostatic scale, proportion scope or proportion analyzer, thermal conductivity tester, moissanite detector, metal testing acids, camera, gemological, jewelry and watch reference library. A complete reference library is critical.
2. What type of lighting conditions will be used to analyze my jewelry? 5000–5500Á Kelvin is the best lighting under which to grade colored gemstones.
3. How will you conduct the appraisal? Are you aware of the appropriate markets in which to valuate my property? (The appropriate market for a 1950 IWC wristwatch is the secondary market for watches of like kind, quality, and obsolescence not a year 2000 new IWC wristwatch). If you are not fully qualified to identify or authenticate an item, how will you handle it? Will you not appraise that one item, or will you consult an expert? If you use an outside resource will the item be out of your possession? Who is liable should anything happen to the item while it is in your possession?
4. What are your fees?
   Fees should be based on a flat fee per piece or assignment rate, or should be based on an hourly rate. Fees should never be based on a percentage of the value or based on a predetermined outcome. Contingency fees are unethical and violate the ethics rules of any competent appraisal organization.
5. What standards do you conform to? Do you write to the guidelines of the organization that you are a member of? Can you show me what those standards and guidelines are?
   If the answer is no to any of these questions, ask why?
6. What will my completed appraisal look like? May I see a sample? Will my appraisal have color photographs? Will there be archived negatives in case the photos are needed later on?
7. Are you willing to defend this appraisal in a court of law?
8. Do you have any references (past clients or colleagues) that can be contacted?
9. May I have a copy of your professional profile?

1. Type of item (watch, ring, pendant, etc.)
2. Gender (men’s, lady’s)
3. Metal contents and type (14kt, 18kt, yellow, white, 950 platinum, 925 sterling silver, etc.)
4. Manufacturing process (cast, die struck, hand fabricated or combinations)
5. Metal finishes (high polished, satin, Florentine, hand engraved, etc.)
6. Types of findings (box clasp, friction posts and nuts, mechanical pin, spring ring, etc.)
7. Settings (6 prong platinum head, yellow gold bezel, bead set, etc.)
8. Measurements (length, width, thickness)
9. Item shapes (heart shaped pendant, knife-edge shank, round bezel, etc.)
10. Metal weight in pennyweight or grams (gross with stones or net with out stones or non precious metal parts).
11. Engraving (example: inside shank machine engraved in block letters ‘Sally Loves Johnny 1-25-95’)
12. Circa (the age of the item, modern, 1915, 1965, etc.)
13. Condition of the piece (excellent, good: slight wear; fair: heavy wear with some damage, etc.)
14. Marriage (this pendant was converted from a ring, this brooch has had a bail added to be worn as a pendant, etc)
15. Style number (if known)
16. Manufacturer (if known)
17. Signatures, hallmarks, and trademarks (if on item)
18. Provenance (If it can be proven: this ring belonged to Queen Elizabeth. If it cannot be proven: this item was represented to the client as having belonged to the Duchess of York, but cannot be substantiated.) This should also include any supporting documentation.
19. Family Lore (family legend has it that this ring belonged to great Aunt Helga whom received it in 1919 and was handed down to Sally in 1950, etc.)
20. Photographs (archived negative numbers?)

• Weight
• Shape (round, marquise, pear, cushion, etc)
• Faceting style (single cut, full cut, step cut, etc.)
• Physical measurements (Length x Width x Depth, when multiple stones not ten with a total weight of 1.00ct, but ten with a total weight of 1.00ct measuring three at L x W x D, two at L x W x D, and five at L x W x D.
• Proportions (for small stones (melee), a statement such as “proportions good” is fine. For larger stones you need table, depth, crown angle, girdle thickness etc.)
• Clarity (noting damage e.g. I1– chipped)
• Color
• Finish (polish/ symmetry)
• Fluorescence (not needed on melee)
• Enhancements (laser drilling, fracture filling, etc)
• Plotting with plotting key (stones over 0.50ct)
• Inscriptions (e.g., report number 123456 inscribed on girdle)

• Stone type (ruby, jade, emerald, synthetic sapphire (including manufacturing process: e.g. fame fusion, Chatham flux, etc.)
• Weight
• Shape (cushion, round, etc)
• Faceting arrangement (step cut, mixed cut, cabochon, etc)
• Physical measurements
• Clarity (using a recognized grading system)
• Color (using a recognized grading system such as GemDialogue) (e.g.: blue for sapphire is not descriptive enough; instead:  Blue zone 80 with a 10% gray mask).
• Cut
• Plotting with key (all major stones)
• Enhancements: Remember, over 90% of all colored gemstones on the market today are enhanced. Is the enhancement is known, or what is it believed to be, and what type of enhancement it is: e.g. fracture filling, glass impregnation, dye, bleaching, oiling, heat, diffusion, etc.
• Origin (if known)
• Phenomenon (description of phenomenon e.g. asterism (star), color change, and all given qualities of the phenomenon i.e.: 6-ray star, rays sharp, bright, straight, centered etc.)
• Carvings (description, content, quality, etc.)

• Natural, cultured, assembled, keshi, etc.
• Type (Akoya, freshwater, south sea, mabé, etc.)
• Size (6.0-6.5mm, 13mm, etc.)
• Shape (coin, round, off round, baroque, etc.)
• Color (white, cream, black, etc.)
• Overtone (rosé, green, gray, etc.)
• Nacre (thick, thin, etc.)
• Luster (high, dull, etc.)
• Blemishes (very slightly blemished, very blemished, etc.)
• Matching (good, fair, very good, etc.)
• Drilled (non drilled, full drilled, half drilled)
• Setting (peg, prong, strung knotted, strung unknotted, etc.)
• Enhancements (bleached, dyed, irradiated, etc.)
• Number of pearls
• Weight (grains, carats, grams, pennyweight)

• Type (strap, bracelet, pocket, pendant, etc.)
• Manufacture (Rolex, Waltham, Gruen, etc.)
• Style (Daytona, curvex, demi-hunter, chronograph, etc.)
• Gender
• Metal content (gold, platinum, gold filled, titanium, steel, etc.)
• Finish (engraved, enameled, satin, high polished, etc.)
• Measurements
• Dial (color, hands, markers, signature, sub dials, date wheel, etc. Has it been refinished?)
• Crystal (lucite, glass, synthetic sapphire, etc; is it a replacement?)
• Crown (screwdown, push buttons, etc.)
• Bezel type (unilateral ratcheting dive, diamond- see above)
• Movement type and set (quartz, automatic, chronometer, mechanical, jeweled, caliber, lever set, pin set, stem set, 6 size, etc)
• Bracelet (type, integrated, measurements, etc.)
• Clasp (deployment, buckle, fold over with wet suit extension and safety, etc.)
• Parts (original, aftermarket replacements)
• Serial numbers (case, movement, etc.)
• Style numbers (case, brace, clasp, etc.)
• Circa (modern, 1980, 1930, etc.)
• Condition (excellent, good, refinished, repaired, worn, not running, etc.)
• Weight (gram, pennyweight)
• Inscriptions or engravings