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The Pennyweight

Guide · for engagement-ring buyers

Buying an Engagement Ring

The one purchase where the paperwork matters as much as the stone. Get the disclosure right — natural, lab-grown, moissanite or treated — get the lab named, and check whether the setting can be resized before you commit to a size.

What matters most here

  • Ask which laboratory issued the grading report, and read the report rather than the product copy
  • Confirm the stone type in writing: natural, lab-grown, moissanite or treated — the four are not interchangeable
  • Check resizing tolerance before ordering; pavé and eternity shanks often cannot be resized
  • Read the return window and whether custom or special-size work is final sale

Do not · Do not treat a lab-grown centre stone as a store of value. It is a real diamond and a poor asset — buy it to wear, and run the cost-per-wear arithmetic instead.

The short list

Three entries from the ledger — the full ranking lives on the best-of pages.

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