How Do I Get My Rough Diamond Certified?

Chances are you probably knew that diamonds don’t come out of the Earth looking like they do in jewelry shops.

That means that a diamond needs to undergo some treatment to be up for sale or showcased in a shop window. But there are diamonds that don’t look that way and aren’t as pretty as the ones showcased are.

You know the ones we’re talking about – rough, uncut, weirdly shaped stones. And, well, if you have one of those diamonds, you’ve probably asked yourself: How do I get my rough diamond certified?

That is pretty important since you should certify all your diamonds – and not just for the sake of the paperwork. If you want to sell them sometime in the future, you’ll need a certificate.

But, it is easier for you to certify a polished and cut diamond that has been weighed and worked on for hours to look the way it looks. Today, we’re here to talk about rough diamonds – and how to certify them if you have one.

Well, without any further ado, let’s jump straight into the in-depth guide covering this subject and see what answers it holds to this question. Let’s go to it!

What Are Rough Diamonds?

Before we get into how to certify them, let’s take a brief look at what rough diamonds are, how you come across them, and what it means for you to have one in your possession.

The fact is that rough diamonds are precious stones that haven’t been cut, processed, polished, or had any work done on them. Simply put, they’re still in the same condition they’ve been when they left the ground that they were found in.

The only thing that might’ve been done to these diamonds is that they’ve likely been weighed in order to determine the diamond’s price.

Diamonds that haven’t been tampered with in any way, shape, or form are generally considered “rough” even if the dirt was brushed off of them and they have been cleaned.

The thing that should be obvious from this is that the rough diamonds stay like that for a pretty short time – and that it’s hard to come by diamonds that are in similar shape.

Generally speaking, if people own diamonds that aren’t a part of a piece of jewelry, those gems are most likely already cut, polished, and taken care of enough for the diamond to be ready for sale.

If you’re thinking about getting your hands on one of these rough and uncut diamonds, there are a few ways to do so. Let’s see what the best ways to get to a rough diamond are – and what prices you should expect from them.

First of all, yes, there are ways you can get your hands on a rough diamond.

The first – and the easiest – way to do so is by buying them online. Numerous websites give you the option of buying your first rough diamond.

This method was popularized back around the late 2000s since the boom that the Internet has made caught up to the diamond world.

Now, as you can imagine, when online shopping was first made available as a diamond-buying option, people were skeptical. So, there weren’t many purchases online when this first started.

And that brings us back to our main topic – certification.

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Here’s the thing: Diamonds have to be certified in order to be sold online. Otherwise, the buyer wouldn’t have any means of checking if the item they were buying was a diamond, a piece of glass – or some other poorly-made copy.

When this method of buying rough diamonds is in question, certification is everything.

The second method for obtaining rough diamonds is to buy them directly from the mining site. Some countries still allow people to buy rough diamonds just a few hours after they were mined – with the proper checks and verification processes happening before that, of course.

If you find yourself in the part of the world in which this is possible, buying a rough diamond this way is also a viable option.

Make sure that you’re not getting a blood diamond by accident, though.

The third option is to find a diamond dealer that has rough diamonds in stock. That’s the most commonly used method because you know who you’re buying the diamonds from and what to expect. Plus, you can see the diamonds in person before paying for them.

That is one of the oldest methods of acquiring rough diamonds and one of the most well-known.

Diamond dealing actually started as a profession by selling rough diamonds. So, if you want to do things the old-fashioned way and buy rough diamonds like back in the day, diamond dealers are your best bet!

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s see what it means to own a rough diamond and what you can do with it.

There are people who actually just like to have rough diamonds and consider them much more beautiful than the regular cut, polished, and embedded ones. That’s understandable.

People who have these views are often diamond collectors, and they hold onto their diamonds for no better reason than to admire them up close – and make their collection that much bigger.

Other people buy rough diamonds to embed them into pieces of jewelry and wear them like that. It seems to be the growing trend in the jewelry world. Why? Well, every cut diamond looks like all of the other cut diamonds. But a rough one is original and unique in shape and appearance.

There’s a common misconception about having rough diamonds in your possession – but that’s been debunked many times in the past.

But let’s just repeat it: It’s totally legal to have rough diamonds as long as you’ve paid the taxes and didn’t buy it on the black market.

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How To Actually Certify Your Rough Diamonds?

Now that you’ve learned everything there is about rough diamonds and possessing them, now let’s get onto the main topic. And that would be seeing what the actual process of certifying your rough diamonds is.

The most well-known process for the certification of rough diamonds is the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. This process has a bloody background which we’ll discuss in a minute. Still, the critical thing to note about this process (before we get into the heavy details) is that it’s international and that a significant number of countries accept the KPCS (or KPC).

In other words: Wherever you go in the world, your diamonds will be certified if they have a KPC certificate. Learn More: What Is the Kimberley Process, and How Does It Work?

The origin of this diamond certification lies in the bloody conflicts caused by the rebel forces in Sierra Leone and the fact that a considerable amount of their funds comes from selling illegal diamonds excavated from the grounds of Sierra Leone.

The word “bloody” is key here; these gems have the nickname “blood diamonds.”

These diamonds have been sold all around the world for lower prices than average – and people bought them without knowing that they were the product of slave labor. Another thing they might not know is that they came from an area that sustained a lot of damage due to an active conflict.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on the rebels in Sierra Leone – and a big part of those sanctions has to do with the rough diamonds coming from there.

There have been instances where rebels were able to sell their diamonds on the black market, which is where they’d usually sell them since the sanctions. However, if you’re keen on getting legal diamonds, buying from them is impossible.

In order to sell and even buy rough diamonds, you have to have a valid KP license, and there’s no way around it. That’s obligatory since these rough diamonds coming from war-infested areas are often called “conflict diamonds.” And as such, it’s utterly unacceptable for anyone to buy or sell them.

But here’s the thing about the KP license and becoming a KP licensee: Although this organization is worldwide, individual governments of individual countries do have special procedures that vary from country to country that you must undergo in order to be a KP licensee.

But, you are not to worry; there are still some other ways for you to certify your rough diamonds.

DITR Authenticity Certification is one of the alternative methods of certifying rough diamonds.

If you’ve bought a rough diamond, the chances are that you’ve already seen this authentification – since every legally sold diamond has to come with one of these.

This certification can – and will – be enough to validate your rough gem in most of the situations you’ll find yourself in as a rough diamond owner. So, if you have that one, we’d advise you not to worry any further.

Some other “smaller” certificates aren’t required. Still, they technically are a certification for your rough diamonds, so we feel obligated to fill you in on the topic.

The first is the geometrical certification. It’s the certificate that’s related to the geometrical and physical characteristics of your rough diamond. These certificates are widely available and can be acquired even in some jewelry shops or specialized diamond stores.

The second certificate is the product assurance, which is another certificate that you should get with your rough diamond. That’s a certificate telling you where the diamonds are from and how they got into your hands.

All other certificates are different for every country, and the US is a country with one of the most strict laws regarding “conflict diamonds” and their distribution.

Keeping that in mind, you should probably ask your local government – depending on where you live – how to certify your rough diamond on a local or country level.

Besides that, the only thing you need to keep in mind is to check what certificates are supported by which country.

If you’re planning on shipping your diamond or traveling with it, you have to make sure that the country you’re traveling to also recognizes your acquired certificate.

See Also: Do Diamonds Have Serial Numbers?

Finalizing Our Thoughts

As you can see, the certification process is much more complicated and vast than you’d expect. Having a rough diamond is a fantastic experience, but like all things, it’s regulated by law, so it naturally means you have to consider that.

To stop the financing of Sierra Leone rebels and everyone that’s a supporter of them, the United Nations Security Council created something called the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, the most well-known certificate for rough diamonds in the world.

All other certificates besides this one aren’t nearly as crucial as the KPCS since it’s international – supported by 82 countries in the world – and has a serious background.

Taking all of this into consideration, you can go for some of your local certificates, depending on the part of the world that you’re living in. Still, you have to remember that the KPCS is the most widely known and accepted certificate for rough diamonds there is.

With that knowledge, we conclude the discussion regarding how do I get my rough diamonds certified. More importantly, we encourage you to find a way to certify the rough diamonds if the company or dealer that you’ve bought them from didn’t do it already. Good luck!

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