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Worlds Most Famous Diamonds
Sitting in the Smithsonian Institute you can see the Hope diamond which is a blue diamond of 45.52 carats. this diamond is said to be cursed and has had an interesting past. Once owned by King Louis XIV, there were stolen during the French Revolution and eventually sold to pay gambling debts. An American heiress or it almost every day and it was sold and warned to raise money for charity and in the end donated to the Smithsonian.
The largest cut diamond is the Cullinan which was found in South Africa. When found it was 3106 carats and was then cut into 105 diamonds. The largest was 153 carats and his name to the star of Africa. This time it was given to King Edward VII in 1907 and descent into the royal scepter which is kept in the Tower of London along with the other crown jewels.
The Cullinan II is 317.40 carat cushion shaped diamond, also kept in the Tower of London, and sits in the center of the in imperial state crown of Great Britain.
Also in the Tower of London you can see the Kohinoor which is 108.93 carats. This white diamond has a curse attached to it. It was owned by the first sultan of Mogul and given to Queen Victoria. It now sits in the crown of Queen Elizabeth.
In the Iranian treasury sit’s the Dary-i-Nur a 186 carat pink diamond. This is the largest uncut diamond in the world.
A very rare diamond, the Dresden Green is a green diamond 41 carats and gets its name from the city of Saxony was displayed for 200 years. You can see it now at the Albertinium Museum in Dresden.
A peach colored diamond called the Hortensiacan be seen in the Louvre. This 20 carat diamond is one of the crown jewels of France.
The Orloff which was thought to have weighed 300 carats uncut is 189.62 carats. legend has it, that it was stolen from a Hindu god statue by a French soldier. it was sold to Prince Gregory Orloff who gave it to Catherine the great to try to win her heart. Catherine had it mounted on the imperial scepter and it’s now in the Russian diamond fund in Moscow.
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