The Cullinan Diamond is the world’s largest diamond. This nearly flawless rough diamond was discovered in 1905 at Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa and named after the mine owner, Sir Thomas Cullinan. It weighed about over 600 grams or 3106 Carats. It is the biggest gem quality diamond ever found.
The Cullinan was handed to Amsterdam’s House of Asscher to polish. The diamond was divided into 9 major gemstones, 96 smaller stones and about 19.5 cts of unpolished pieces. The Cullinan Diamond was cut and polished into 105 diamonds with the largest of them weighing 530.21 Carats and named the Great Star of Africa (Cullinan1).
The second diamond weighs 317.42 Carats and was named the Lesser Star of Africa (Cullinan 2). The two largest gems were kept for England’s regalia and the rest went to Asscher as payment. King Edward bought one of the major gems for his consort, Queen Alexandra. Both diamonds have been set into the British Crown.
Louis Botha, premier of the Transvaal, persuaded his government to buy the diamond for approx. US $1 million and presented it to England’s King Edward VII as a token of thanks for granting Transvaal its own constitution. The Transvaal government bought the remaining stones and pieces and presented the other 6 major gems to Queen Mary in 1910. Two of the small stones were presented to Louis Botha, who gave one to his daughter when she turned 17.
Today, the diamond is located in the Tower of London in the British Sovereign’s Royal Scepter. The diamond is not alone there, as the Cullinan II, along with some of the other smaller cuts of the original Cullinan diamond, is also located in the Tower of London as part of the Crown Jewels. Queen Elizabeth II holds a private collection inherited from her grandmother, Queen Mary, with seven of the major cuts and 96 minor cuts.
For the diamond’s in today’s times, bigger isn’t always better. The diamond’s value is assessed with the 4Cs - the diamond size (carat weight), color, clarity and cut. The larger the diamond, the higher the color, the cleaner the diamond, the better the cut. The price is high when the diamond is rare in nature and not easily available. Yadav Jewelry will always give you an honest and fair price.
