Gem Testing

Do you know what gem it is you have in your ring/brooch/pendant or what that gem is that you were given by Grandma? Have you had the diamond in your ring properly certified? Graeme is a gemmologist with an F.G.A. diploma and has over 40 years experience in the jewellery trade, he has a “Gemmology Diploma” from “The Gemmological Association of Great Britain” and has completed the “Diamond Grading Course” from the “GIA”.

He is a member of the JASNZ (Jewellery Appraisers Society of New Zealand Inc), The JWNZ (Jewellers& Watchmakers of New Zealand Inc), The GANZ (Gemmological Association of New Zealand).

Graeme is passionate about gemmology, gem identification jewellery and appraising. He is constantly striving to improve his knowledge and to ensure that the service to you our clients is second to none.

It is important to have the gems in your jewellery properly identified, if you have made apurchase overseas, what you have been told and what you have may not be correct, Graeme can put your mind at ease about this, call in to our shop in the Historic Village for no obligation advice

Can my jeweller provide a gem report done by you?

Yes, if you take your Jewellery to a jeweller, and request that they send it to “Graeme Petersen at Gem Testing Laboratories” for an identification we can do that through them.

Can my jeweller provide a gem report report?

Yes!! But take note that most NZ Jewellers DO NOT hold a gemmological or appraisal qualification, in most case they do not have the specialised instrumentation and equipment that is essential to do professional reports and usually have not had any formal, or other training, in diamond grading & gemmology science.

How long do you take to carry out reports?

Often an indentification can be done on the spot while you wait, but this will depend on how busy we are or how many items you have. We can advise a time for completion after we have seen what you have, and what needs to be done.

Will you identify my gems in my home?

Unfortunately NO, we cannot do this, you need to bring them to us here at our shop in the Historic Village.

Can and will you collect my pieces from me?

As a general rule, we do not collect Jewellery Items from Private Clients, there are several reasons for not doing this, the main one is that it is a huge Security Risk and the time required to do this all adds extra cost to you.

If I wish to have items identified by you, how do I proceed?

Our normal hours are 9.30am until 4.30pm Monday to Friday, 10am to 2pm Saturday, bring them in between these times to enable us to see what you have – once we have seen the items and given an estimate you can then decide what you want done.

Why have you asked me for previous documents to consider?

If you have documents that relate to any of the items, they may assist in any identification, we request you bring them with you as these may be documents, such as: Diamond Reports / Certificates, Guarantees, or ‘Sales Receipts’, often have information relating to an item, and are part of our ‘Due Diligence’ when identifying your items.

These may be documents that give us valuable information, such as – Gem weight/s and grades, sizes and measurements for individual stones, and may aid in accuracy of the final identification

What does an identification cost?

Often we can do an identification easlity and quickly and this will be at a minumum or no cost to you! If more testing is required we charge on a time basis so it is difficult without viewing the item/s to give an accurate quote, it costs nothing to discuss and obtain a quote.

We will quote to give you a more accurate price if you require.

Sometimes, an item is of a type, that it may require further testing and opinions form two or more experienced gemmologists to confer to confirm grades, values etc. and this will obviously be at a higher cost.

Figures listed here are only a ‘Guide’, to give you a quote is at no charge but we need to see the items to do this, this way we can assess the time it may take. Just call in during our business hours for this

If Items need to be ‘Couriered’ either way, there will be extra charges.

Please call us on 07 577 1979 or 027 4496 960 for any other information you may require.