While man's best friend is always considered to be a dog,diamonds are frequently called a girl's best friend—at leastaccording to the movies. The jewelry industry has made diamondengagement rings a virtual must, and there are anniversary bands toadd to the collection.

Because diamonds are valuable, they should be scheduledseparately onto an insurance policy so that they're covered forthings that tend to happen to jewelry, such as dropping a ring downthe sink or losing an earring. Stuff happens. An appraisal isneeded in order to insure the jewelry—and a good appraisal willgive specific details of the stone, such as weight, grade,measurements, diagrams of flaws, any chemical treatments to thestone and a photo of the item.

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However, there is a new twist to diamond jewelry: syntheticdiamonds. Not cubic zirconia or artificial substances that looksimilar to diamonds but are easy for a jeweler to identify asfake—but lab-created diamonds. These diamonds are created bypassing a cloud of carbon gas over diamond seeds and then growing adiamond. The procedure results in gem-quality diamonds that arevery difficult to distinguish from mined diamonds, at less cost.They even have flaws similar to mined diamonds.

The problem comes with identifying these stones; since they aretechnically diamonds, only lab grown, most jewelers don't have thespecific equipment to make a positive identification as to whetherthe stone is mined or synthetic. Synthetic stones, whilegem-quality, are less valuable than mined stones. For example, a1.10 carat round diamond, VS1 clarity and I color, is $5,979 fromGemesis, a leading maker of lab-created diamonds. A similar rounddiamond, 1.10 carats, VVS1 clarity and I color, is $9,444 from BlueNile. Since to the naked eye the difference in clarity isindistinguishable, the synthetic diamond is a bargain.

This is where the appraisal becomes critically important; a goodappraisal will identify that the diamond is synthetic. This shouldcome from a certified lab, and not just the sales receipt or aletter from the jeweler. The labs have the equipment to identifythe stone as synthetic or mined and will state it on the appraisal.Likewise, Gemesis inscribes all stones over one-quarter carat withtheir name and a certificate number on the stone.

So remember, when scheduling a stone, it is important to reviewthe appraisal and determine whether or not the stone is syntheticin order to be able to properly replace the stone with one ofsimilar quality.