The most famous diamonds in the world

The Cullinan The biggest diamond discovered until today is the "Cullinan", found in South Africa in 1905. Its net weight if of 3.106,75 carats (uncut), while it was the size of an apple. It was cut to 106 smaller pieces which were named after it, such as the Cullinan I (Great Star of Africa), the Cullinan II (Lesser Star of Africa), placed on the British Royal Crown and 7 other great diamonds. During the II World War, this diamond collection was placed in jam jars and buried in a field close to the Windsor Castle in London, to avoid being stolen by the Germans. The Excelsior The Excelsior was discovered in South Africa, and its size was one third of the Cullinan size. Its weighted 995 carats and was discovered in 1893 by a miner. The name Excelsior came from its strange shape. It was cut in 21 smaller diamonds, with the bigger weighting 69 carats, and named Excelsior Ι. The Regent The Regent was discovered in 1701 in the Kistna River in India, and weighted 410 carats. It was sold to the Englishman Thomas Pitt, who cut it to a smaller diamond in a brilliant cut of a 140,50 carat weight. In 1717, it was sold to the Duc of Orleans who was the Regent of France, and the diamond was named after this title. This particular diamond was used by many famous historical personalities, such as the King’s Louis XV royal crown, a hair decoration for the Queen Marie, a hat decoration for Marie Antoinette and a decorative part of Napoleon Bonaparte’s sword. Today it is exposed in the Louvre’s museum, in Paris. The Golden Jubilee The biggest polished diamond in the world was discovered in 1986 and was first named Unnamed Brown. Later it was renamed Golden Jubilee, when bought by the king of Thailand for the 50th anniversary of his coronation. The specific diamond has a color FancyYellow-Brown, and was cut by Gabi Tolkowsky at 545 carats. The Centenary The Centenary was discovered in 1988, and was presented on the 100th anniversary of famous diamond company De Beers, weighting 599 carats. De Beers assigned its cut to Gabi Tolkowsky who finally turned it to a smaller diamond of 273 carats. Even if of a smaller size, the Centenary is up to today the biggest diamond in a contemporary cut. Τhe Hope Diamond In spite of its quite small size of 45,52 carats, the Hope diamond might be the most famous diamond eve, mostly due to the legendary bad luck it brought to his owners. This diamond stands out by its intense blue-violet color and as changed many hands since the majority of his previous owners have either bankrupted or died. Today the Hope is a part of the Smithsonian Institute collection.