Famous Stones

The Hope Diamond is a 45.52 carat blue diamond graded by GIA as Fancy Dark Grayish Blue. It is the centerpiece of the National Gem Collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where it has been on display since 1958. The stone originated at the Kollur Mine in the Golconda region of India.

NowSmithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., United States

The Koh-i-Noor is a 105.6 carat colorless diamond cut as an oval brilliant. It is set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, made for the 1937 coronation, and is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.

NowJewel House, Tower of London, United Kingdom

The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing 3,106 carats when discovered at the Premier No. 2 mine at Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. Surface manager Frederick Wells found the near colorless stone, which was named after Thomas Cullinan, the mine's owner. Its two largest cut stones, Cullinan I and Cullinan II, are set in the British coronation regalia and displayed in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.

NowJewel House, Tower of London, United Kingdom (Cullinan I and II)

The Black Prince's Ruby is not a ruby at all. It is a 170 carat irregular cabochon of red spinel, about 4.3 cm long, set in the cross pattee at the front of the Imperial State Crown, directly above the Cullinan II diamond. Spinel was only chemically distinguished from ruby in 1783, long after the stone was named. It is believed to have been mined in Badakhshan, the principal medieval source of large spinels, and is displayed in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.

NowJewel House, Tower of London, United Kingdom

The Star of India is a 563.35 carat star sapphire, the largest gem of its kind on public display anywhere. The stone is a milky grayish blue cabochon, polished but unfaceted, and it is unusual in showing a six-rayed star on both sides. The milky body color and the star effect, called asterism, both come from fine traces of the mineral rutile. Tiny rutile fibers aligned in a three-fold pattern inside the gem reflect incoming light into the star. It is displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, in the museum's halls of gems and minerals.

NowAmerican Museum of Natural History, New York, United States

La Peregrina, Spanish for the Pilgrim or the Wanderer, is a pear shaped natural saltwater pearl found in the Gulf of Panama in the sixteenth century. As found it weighed 223.8 grains (55.95 carats); cleaning and drilling in 1913 reduced it to 203.84 grains, about 50.96 carats. It sold at Christie's New York in December 2011 for 11.8 million dollars, a record price for a pearl jewel at auction, and is now in a private collection.

NowPrivate collection (sold at Christie's New York, December 2011)

The Regent Diamond is a 140.64 carat cushion brilliant cut diamond, white with a pale blue tint and noted for its exceptional purity. It belongs to the French Crown Jewels collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, where it has been held since 1887, though the Louvre's collection database currently lists it as not on display.

NowMusée du Louvre, Paris, France

The Orlov is a 189.62 carat diamond of Indian origin, white with a faint bluish-green tinge, cut in a Mughal-style rose form often described as having the shape and proportions of half an egg, with a faceted domed surface and a nearly flat underside. It measures roughly 32 by 35 by 21 millimeters. The stone is mounted at the top of the Russian Imperial Sceptre and is held in the Diamond Fund collection at the Moscow Kremlin.

NowDiamond Fund, Moscow Kremlin, Russia

The Sancy is a 55.23 carat pale yellow diamond of Indian origin, cut in an asymmetrical pear shape faceted on both sides, with sixty-eight facets arranged in a star pattern. The cut is attributed to a Parisian lapidary of the second half of the 16th century. It belongs to the French Crown Jewels collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, though the Louvre's collection database currently lists it as not on display.

NowMusée du Louvre, Paris, France

The Dresden Green is a 41 carat natural green diamond, the largest green diamond known. It is a Type IIa stone with VS1 clarity, and its apple green color is the result of natural radiation exposure within the earth. It is displayed in the Watzdorf Cabinet of the New Green Vault at Dresden's Residenzschloss, part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

NowNew Green Vault (Neues Grünes Gewölbe), Residenzschloss, Dresden, Germany

The Timur Ruby is a 352.54 carat polished red spinel, unfaceted and uncut in form, that is part of the British Royal Collection. Like the Black Prince's Ruby, it is not a ruby: it was formally reclassified as a spinel in 1851, decades after chemists first separated the two species. Garrard set it as the centerpiece of a necklace for Queen Victoria in 1853.

NowRoyal Collection, United Kingdom

The Stuart Sapphire is a 104 carat blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, an ovoid table-cut stone about 4.9 cm long with one or two blemishes. It is mounted on the back of the band of the Imperial State Crown and displayed with the other Crown Jewels in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.

NowJewel House, Tower of London, United Kingdom

The Tiffany Diamond is a 128.54 carat cushion-shaped yellow diamond, one of the largest yellow diamonds ever discovered. The 287.42 carat rough stone was unearthed in the Kimberley diamond mines of South Africa in 1877 and purchased the following year for $18,000 on behalf of New York jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany. The cutting was supervised by George Frederick Kunz, the firm's gemologist. The diamond remains on view at the Tiffany & Co. flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York, and the company has never sold it.

NowTiffany & Co. flagship store, Fifth Avenue, New York, United States

The Taylor-Burton Diamond is a pear-shaped colorless diamond cut by Harry Winston from a 241 carat rough found at the Premier Mine in South Africa in 1966. The finished stone weighed 69.42 carats and was first owned by Harriet Annenberg Ames, sister of United States ambassador Walter Annenberg. After a 1980 recut it weighs 68.09 carats, and it is in a private collection, last documented with the Mouawad jewellery house.

NowPrivate collection; last documented with the Mouawad jewellery house

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is a 31.06 carat Fancy Deep Blue diamond attributed to the Kollur Mine in India. Before its 2010 recut it weighed 35.56 carats, graded Fancy Deep grayish blue with VS2 clarity. The stone is in a private collection.

NowPrivate collection; last documented sale was to Laurence Graff at Christie's in 2008, with a reported private sale in 2011

The Golden Jubilee Diamond is a 545.67 carat fancy yellow-brown diamond and, per Guinness World Records, the largest cut diamond in the world, surpassing the Cullinan I by about 15 carats. It was cut from a heavily fractured 755.5 carat rough found in 1985 at the Premier Mine in South Africa, the same mine that produced the Cullinan. The stone is part of the Thai royal collection in Bangkok.

NowThai royal collection, Bangkok, Thailand

The Pink Star, now known as the CTF Pink Star and originally as the Steinmetz Pink, is a 59.60 carat oval mixed-cut diamond graded Fancy Vivid Pink and Internally Flawless by the Gemological Institute of America. It is the largest diamond known to have received the Vivid Pink grade. The stone was bought by Chow Tai Fook at auction in 2017 and renamed in the company's honor.

NowChow Tai Fook Enterprises (private corporate collection), Hong Kong

The Logan Sapphire is a 422.98 carat blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, one of the largest faceted gem-quality blue sapphires in existence. The stone is a mixed cushion cut, blue with slight violet overtones, and measures 49.23 by 38.26 by 20.56 millimeters, roughly the size of a large chicken egg. It is mounted in a silver and gold brooch framed by 20 round brilliant cut diamonds totaling about 16 carats, making it the largest and heaviest mounted gem in the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection. A Gemological Institute of America report from June 1997 found the color natural, with no evidence of heat treatment.

NowNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States

The Bismarck Sapphire is a 98.56 carat table-cut sapphire mined in Burma, now Myanmar, and prized for its deep blue color. It is the centerpiece of the Bismarck Sapphire Necklace, a platinum chain set with round brilliant cut diamonds. The central stone is surrounded by baguette-cut diamonds and eight smaller square-cut sapphires placed symmetrically around the edges. The necklace is displayed in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

NowNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States

The DeLong Star Ruby is a 100.32 carat oval cabochon star ruby discovered in Burma in the 1930s. Press accounts at the time of its 1964 theft described it as orchid red and called it one of the most perfect star rubies known. Like other star corundums, it displays a six-rayed star, an effect called asterism. The gem belongs to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

NowAmerican Museum of Natural History, New York, United States

The Rosser Reeves Star Ruby is a 138.7 carat oval cabochon star ruby from Sri Lanka, often described as one of the largest and finest star rubies in the world. The stone is a medium red-purple and is noted for its strong color and well defined six-rayed star, an effect called asterism. It is held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where it carries catalog number NMNH G4257.

NowNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States

The Hooker Emerald is a 75.47 carat Colombian emerald of deep green color, today the centerpiece of a platinum and diamond brooch in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The stone was mined in Colombia in the 16th or 17th century and sent to Europe by Spanish colonists before passing to the Ottoman ruling family.

NowNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The Gachala Emerald is an 858 carat uncut emerald crystal, about 5 centimeters across, regarded as one of the largest and finest gem quality emerald crystals in the world. It is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where it carries catalog number 122078.

NowNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The American Golden Topaz is a 22,892.5 carat faceted topaz, the largest cut yellow topaz in the world and one of the largest faceted gems of any kind. The cushion cut stone carries 172 facets and weighs about 4.6 kilograms. It is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where it holds catalog number G9875.

NowNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The Andamooka Opal, also known as the Queen's Opal, is a 203 carat opal from the Andamooka opal field in South Australia, displaying a play of color in reds, blues, and greens. It was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 and has remained associated with the British royal jewellery collection since.

NowBritish royal jewellery collection (presented to Queen Elizabeth II, 1954)