American Gem Society, AGS

AGS

The American Gem Society (AGS) was founded in 1934 by Robert M. Shipley, who also founded the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). The AGS is dedicated to consumer protection through established standards of ethical business practices and the continuing education of its wholesale and retail members.

In the early 1990’s, an AGS Ad Hoc Committee recommended the development of a Diamond Grading Laboratory to quantify and popularize all of the factors that affect a diamond’s value and beauty. In addition to the Carat Weight of the diamond, the AGS’ Diamond Grading System rates Cut, Color, and Clarity on a scale of 0 through 10, with 0 being the rarest and most desirable and 10 being the least desirable.

Although the AGS Diamond Grading System was developed in the early 1960’s, it took technological advancements in the early 1990’s to make it economically feasible to quantify the most important of the 4 C’s - Cut. Prior to this time, Diamond Grading Laboratories did not quantify the quality of a diamond’s cut.

In 1996, the American Gem Society Laboratory became a reality. Over the next few years, the AGS Ideal 0 cut grade became the new international standard for diamond beauty and value. A diamond that achieves an AGS Ideal 0 cut grade epitomizes the factors that make a diamond maximally beautiful. Those factors are brilliance, dispersion (fire), and scintillation.