A new diamond-marking service has been introduced that places transparent marks directly on the table of polished diamonds, designed to create a permanent consumer-facing identity on the stone itself. PermaScribe, developed by the New Jersey-based PhotoScribe Technologies, uses nanoscale surface modification to produce marks that are invisible to the naked eye but verifiable under the appropriate illumination – a departure from traditional girdle inscriptions typically used for grading-report numbers and serialisation.
The service comes as the natural diamond industry faces sustained competition from laboratory-grown stones, with industry initiatives increasingly focused on building consumer confidence through verifiable provenance and clear differentiation. Proponents of the technology argue that placing a mark on the table of a diamond shifts its identity from a commodity with a serial number to a product with a visible trust mark, permanently linking the stone to a verified programme, brand, or provenance record.
In this interview with Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa, PhotoScribe Technologies president and chief executive David Benderly explains how PermaScribe differs technically from conventional laser inscription, its potential to strengthen security, and the role he sees for the technology in the industry's broader push for a globally recognised natural diamond trust mark.
How does the PermaScribe transparent table marking technology differ technically from traditional girdle inscriptions, and what specific advantages does the table location offer for branding and consumer trust?
Traditional girdle inscriptions are generally contrasting marks designed primarily for serial numbers and grading-report identification. PermaScribe is fundamentally different because the mark on the table is transparent. It contains no black graphitisation and is engineered to remain invisible to the naked eye, preserving the diamond’s clarity, brilliance, beauty, and therefore its quality as a polished gemstone.
However, invisible does not mean inaccessible. Under the appropriate illumination and magnification, the mark becomes readily visible, allowing both the trade and the consumer to see and verify the trust mark when desired.
The table also provides a much better location for consumer-facing branding. It is easier to locate than a small inscription somewhere around the girdle, provides substantially more usable area, and remains accessible even after many stones are mounted in jewellery. The girdle is an excellent location for identification; the table creates an opportunity for identity, trust, and branding.
What specific industry initiatives and market conditions have driven the development of PermaScribe, and how does it address the need for clearer differentiation between natural and laboratory-grown diamonds?
One important market shift has been the loss of confidence in a simple inscription as sufficient proof of a diamond’s identity. Conventional laser-inscription equipment is widely available, and the industry has seen cases in which inscriptions and their associated grading information have been fraudulently reproduced or misused.
PhotoScribe previously addressed this problem through our secured gemstone-identification technology, covered by U.S. Patent 11,475,262 B2, which uses multiple layers of identifying information to make fraudulent substitution substantially more difficult and detectable.
PermaScribe takes the concept further in a more consumer-facing direction. Once a diamond has been verified through an authorised programme, a transparent trust mark can be placed directly on its table. The consumer can then see that mark under the appropriate illumination and know that the stone has passed through the verification process required to receive it.
This is particularly relevant as the industry looks for clearer ways to differentiate natural diamonds from laboratory-grown diamonds and strengthen consumer confidence. PermaScribe does not replace verification; it creates a permanent physical connection between the verified diamond and the trusted organisation or system standing behind it.
What is the significance of placing a “trust mark” on the diamond’s table rather than just a serial number, and how does this shift the diamond’s identity from a commodity to a branded product?
I often describe the distinction this way: “A girdle serial number identifies a diamond, but a table brand mark gives the diamond its identity.”
This is similar to almost every other luxury product. Consumers do not necessarily need to understand every technical specification behind an item before they trust it. Much of that trust comes from what the brand represents.
For example, when a consumer purchases a diamond from a highly respected luxury jeweller, they may not personally verify every aspect of its grading, workmanship, provenance, or ethical sourcing. They trust the standards that the brand represents.
PermaScribe allows that trusted identity to reside on the diamond itself. Provenance documents, grading reports, packaging, and databases remain important, but they all exist outside the stone. A transparent table mark creates a permanent physical connection between the diamond and the trusted organisation or programme standing behind it.
How does PermaScribe enhance security and reduce the risk of forgery compared to traditional girdle inscriptions?
In recent years, the industry has seen a growing concern over forged diamond inscriptions and fraudulent associations with grading reports. The availability of laboratory-grown diamonds with characteristics similar to natural diamonds has made substitution an increasingly important issue.
A conventional laser-marking system is relatively inexpensive and readily available commercially. Replicating a PermaScribe table mark is a very different technical challenge.
Producing a transparent nanoscale mark on a polished diamond table, without black graphitisation, visible damage, or degradation of the diamond’s appearance, requires multiple pieces of specialised equipment, precise process control, and considerable expertise. It is not simply a matter of purchasing a laser and copying a logo.
The security concept is similar to the security features incorporated into currency. Everyone can see or understand what many currency authentication features look like, but that does not mean they possess the equipment, materials, processes, and expertise required to reproduce them accurately.
PermaScribe creates a similar technical barrier. The trust mark is intentionally available for verification, but reproducing its transparent nanoscale characteristics requires specialised capabilities that are not readily available commercially.
The barrier to entry is therefore both financial and technical. Establishing the complete capability would require a seven-figure-scale investment together with specialised process expertise. The very limited availability of such capabilities also makes unauthorised commercial-scale reproduction considerably easier to identify and trace than conventional laser inscription.
How is the PermaScribe mark made invisible to the naked eye while remaining detectable under specific conditions, and what equipment is needed to view it?
The invisibility of PermaScribe does not come primarily from making the mark physically small. In fact, a table mark can be considerably larger than a conventional girdle inscription.
What makes it invisible is its extremely shallow surface profile.
The depth can be comparable to the nanoscale surface roughness and polishing features already present on a polished diamond, or it can be made slightly deeper when greater visibility under inspection illumination is desired. One way to think about the process is that the marked area creates an extremely subtle difference in the polished surface that produces essentially no visible contrast under normal viewing conditions.
There is a useful analogy to a watermark on currency. A watermark does not interfere with the normal appearance or use of the banknote, but becomes apparent when it is intentionally viewed under the appropriate conditions. PermaScribe follows a similar principle, although the optical mechanism is different.
Under appropriate reflected-light illumination, the minute difference in surface topography produces contrast, and the mark becomes readily apparent. We have demonstrated the marks particularly effectively using reflected bright-field illumination and differential interference contrast (DIC) under magnification.
The result is a mark that remains invisible during normal viewing of the diamond but can be clearly recognised when a consumer or industry professional intentionally wants to inspect it.
How will PermaScribe be integrated into existing diamond grading and verification systems, such as linking to a grading report or provenance record?
At this stage, we do not see the primary purpose of PermaScribe as placing another unique serial number on the diamond. A conventional girdle inscription already performs that function very effectively, although PermaScribe could carry a unique identifier if required.
The more important role of PermaScribe is to provide the trust layer.
A diamond would first be verified according to the requirements of the laboratory, brand, provenance system, or natural-diamond programme responsible for it. Only stones meeting those requirements would receive the corresponding PermaScribe trust mark.
The table mark therefore does not independently determine that a diamond is natural. The confidence comes from the controlled process behind issuance of the mark. It provides a physical connection between a verified diamond and the organisation, grading system, provenance record, or brand standing behind it.
A unique girdle number can continue to link the individual stone to its specific report, while the PermaScribe table mark indicates who stands behind that identification and what it represents.
What are the implications of PermaScribe for the secondary diamond market and the resale value of branded stones?
It is too early to claim that PermaScribe itself will create a resale premium, and we prefer to be conservative in that regard.
However, one potentially important advantage is that the identity can remain physically connected to the diamond as it changes ownership. Packaging, receipts, and even certificates can become separated from a stone over time. A permanent mark on the diamond remains with the product.
If that mark is supported by a durable grading, provenance, or verification record, it may make it easier for a future owner, jeweller, dealer, or other secondary-market participant to reconnect the diamond with its documented identity and history.
Whether this ultimately translates into higher resale values will have to be demonstrated by the market, but maintaining a verifiable identity should contribute to confidence in a secondary transaction.
How can brands, retailers, and industry organisations adopt PermaScribe without acquiring their own marking equipment, and what is the initial rollout plan?
PermaScribe is available today as a commercial service. Both our New Jersey laboratory and our affiliated laboratory in India are fully operational, so customers do not need to acquire or operate the specialised equipment themselves.
There is no minimum quantity. In fact, we encourage companies initially to conduct small pilot runs using their own diamonds so they can evaluate the appearance, viewing process, customer reaction, and branding possibilities firsthand before committing to a larger programme.
Pricing is charged on a per-stone basis, making both small evaluations and larger production programs practical.
The process is also scalable. Between the available facilities, we have the capability to process more than one million stones per year, so the service is not limited to experimental or boutique quantities.
What is the long-term vision for PermaScribe in the context of the broader industry push for a globally recognised natural diamond trust mark?
Our objective is not for PhotoScribe to decide what a global natural-diamond trust mark should look like or which organisation should control it. Those are decisions for the broader diamond industry.
We see PermaScribe as the enabling technology that can put that trusted identity permanently on the product itself.
A successful natural-diamond trust system will almost certainly require multiple elements: reliable detection, grading, provenance, responsible sourcing, certification, databases, branding, consumer education, and appropriate governance. A physical mark alone cannot replace any of those.
But without a secure connection to the diamond itself, most of those assurances remain external to the product.
Our long-term vision is for the transparent table mark to become that physical connection. Whether the mark represents an international natural-diamond initiative, a grading laboratory, a provenance programme, or a trusted commercial brand, the consumer should be able to look at the diamond under the appropriate viewer and see the identity of the organisation standing behind it.
What are the potential challenges and limitations of implementing PermaScribe, such as cost, scalability, or the need for industry-wide adoption?
The principal challenge is not technical scalability. Our current facilities have the capacity to process more than one million stones annually, and the service model means individual brands or retailers do not need to make the substantial capital investment required to reproduce the technology internally.
There is a per-stone processing cost, but organisations can begin with very small quantities because we have no minimum-order requirement.
The larger challenge is creating the ecosystem around the mark. A trust mark is only as meaningful as the organisation and standards behind it. The industry still needs strong verification, provenance, grading, responsible sourcing, and consumer education. Retailers also need the appropriate viewing capability so that the mark can be shown easily when a consumer wants to see it.
Industry-wide adoption is not required for an individual brand to use PermaScribe. A brand can begin using its own trusted mark today. However, if the industry ultimately adopts a broadly recognised natural-diamond trust mark, its value to consumers will increase as recognition and understanding grow.
We therefore do not see PermaScribe as a replacement for the other work being done to strengthen natural diamonds. We see it as the physical link that can connect all of those assurances to the diamond itself.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor-In-Chief, Rough & Polished
