Legislation or Guidelines? The Marking of Diamonds

by Abe Sherman – CEO, BIG – Buyers Intelligence Group

November 7, 2023

Last week’s article, A Marking Act – For Diamonds, went out with the title a Marketing Act, instead of the actual title. This was our marketing team’s faux pas (so they say!) but in case you missed it, here is that article.

Not surprisingly, I received quite a few comments about this subject. And for those of you who don’t send me comments back, I really do enjoy reading the feedback. I wanted to address one topic that was mentioned several times as well as a follow-up regarding expectations.

First, why hadn’t I suggested that sub-surface inscriptions be added to natural diamonds? This was something that I did discuss with the company that developed the sub-surface inscription technology. The problem is there is more than a small chance that adding a sub-surface inscription to a high-clarity diamond will decrease its clarity grade. Since these are permanent markings visible under 10x magnification, and centered under the table, GIA and other labs may downgrade the clarity of the diamond, which would have a significant impact on its value. Obviously, I am less concerned about downgrading the grade of a manufactured diamond since there is little difference in values regardless of their grades.

The question whether manufactured diamonds should even be graded is up to the market. With natural diamonds, the value of each diamond is highly correlated to color, clarity and of course size, but no such correlation exists with lab-grown counterparts. In other words, adding a sub-surface inscription does not impact the value of manufactured goods. The idea behind adding an easy-to-see permanent inscription to lab-grown diamonds has more to do with protecting all stakeholders, as I wrote last week and don’t need to repeat here.

Second, what’s my expectation for getting either a Marking Act into law or into the FTC guidelines for the jewelry industry? Well, isn’t that the question? How much longer will we permit millions of manufactured diamonds to enter the marketplace, nearly indistinguishable from natural diamonds, without the benefit of easy identification? That, my friends, is up to all of you. One jeweler sent me a note suggesting that I start a petition – well fine, but I don’t believe that’s going to move industry organizations to act any faster. Either you all think this is important, or you don’t.

As far as how long enacting legislation or guidelines will take? That’s another good question. Those industry organizations that lobby on behalf of the jewelry industry will know those answers, so I encourage you to reach out to the ones you belong to and implore them to get moving on these subjects. Is this something that will require a literal Act of Congress, or can the FTC guidelines be able to deal with adding the necessary protections our industry needs? This is above my paygrade.

One final point, and I have to fall on the sword on this one. Several people asked why this hadn’t been brought up before since the technology has existed going back to at least 2018 when De Beers launched its Lightbox brand. I read those comments and wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before. Sub-surface inscriptions should have already been required by now. I failed you on this one and I apologize for not thinking about it sooner.