The Hoge Raad Voor Diamant (The Diamond High Council) is best known as the HRD. The officially recognized representative of the Belgium diamond trade and industry, the HRD headquarters are located in Antwerp, World Diamond Center. One of the departments of The Antwerp Diamond High Council (HRD) is the HRD Certificates Department. Preceded by extensive research as of 1972, the HRD Certificates Department was founded in 1976 to meet the growing demand for reliable diamond certificates.
Diamond Certificate guarantees the authenticity of a diamond and thus rules out the possibility of it being an imitation or a synthetic diamond. Next, the Certificate contains a complete quality description of the diamond, with regard to shape, weight, clarity grade, fluorescence, colour grade, measurements, proportions and finish grade. These quality characteristics determine the value of the stone.
Some diamonds have a colour different from the normal type of diamond. The most beautiful among these are called ‘fancy colours’. On the HRD Diamond Colour Certificate, attention is paid to the specific characteristics that determine the value of colour diamonds, such as the colour description, the colour origin and the luminescence. Obviously, it is especially important whether the diamond under examination is a natural fancy colour diamond or a treated diamond. The Diamond Colour Certificate can be requested separately or in combination with an HRD Diamond Certificate.
Advice: We have had several diamonds that were sent to the GIA after getting HRD certifications. In each situation, the GIA certifications came back with lower color and higher fluorescence ratings. As a result we expect HRD certifications to be too generous in their color grading. Some diamonds like the Flanders cut are only cut in Belgium so HRD certifications might be the only option.