This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 16 in 2023. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
In January 2023, following an announcement published a year earlier, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) stopped providing paper reports. For several months, only digital grading reports were issued and users have been able to access GIA’s digital Diamond Dossier reports on the GIA applications or on GIA’s online Report Check portal.
«There are some that have been asking us to go digital for a while – Pritesh Patel, GIA senior vice president declared on the occasion of the launch of the initiative – I’m sure there are some who will still want paper reports, but the majority are ready for this». This was not actually the case though, for the institute has been forced into a resounding backtrack.
«All diamonds in GIA laboratories on April 9», Tom Moses, GIA executive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer, wrote in his April 6, 2023 letter to clients, «or submitted on or after that date for the Dossier service will be returned with a printed GIA Diamond Dossier report, which will look the same as those issued before the introduction of the digital-only report in January».
What happened in the three-month transition to digital? Why was the paper phase-out policy discontinued? As much as saving issued documents paper was also a commendable environmental move the GIA’s plan to go exclusively digital evidently had some weakness. Rapaport news reported: «GIA customers who submit a diamond receive the stone back in a small envelope that shows the key specifications and a unique QR code that links to an online report. Although the girdle gets inscribed, other people can easily copy the code and associate it with a different diamond, according to traders who spoke with Rapaport News in recent weeks».
But doubts and concerns have also been expressed by WFDB, India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and Mumbai’s Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), which has raised the issue with GIA. There was a widespread feeling that at the retail stage the withdrawal of printed reports may create dissatisfaction and that end customers may return stones without the traditional paper certificate.
Gem News published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #16, Summer 2023
