Some gemstones are worth hundreds of millions of dollars due to their enormous size, beauty or rarity.
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A Filipino fisherman found a 75-pound pearl 10 years ago off the coast of Palawan Island. He kept it under his bed as a lucky charm, according to Mother Nature Network. The pearl is 2 feet wide and 2 feet long and is estimated to be worth $100 million. Photo: Aileen Cynthia Maggay-Amurao. |
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Yadanar Taungtann Gems Company discovered a giant jade block worth about $170 million in Hpakant town, Kachin state, Myanmar, on October 13, 2016. The jade block is 5.5m long, 5.5m wide, 2.7m high and weighs 175 tons. This is the second largest jade block in the world. Photo: Indian Express. |
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The Graff Pink is one of the most expensive pink diamonds in the world, and was auctioned in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2010. Laurence Graff, a jeweler in London, England, bought the 24.78-carat Graff Pink (1 carat = 0.2 grams) for $46 million. Photo: Jewelry Obsession. |
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The 22.892-carat topaz at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, is one of the world’s most faceted gemstones, with 172 facets. In the 1980s, Leon Agee, a gem cutter, spent two years shaping it from a 25-pound block of the gemstone found in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Photo: Karen Neoh. |
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The “Green Giant of the Orient” is the world’s largest faceted blue sapphire, weighing 486.52 carats. It is mounted in a platinum brooch surrounded by diamonds. The gemstone originated in Sri Lanka. In 2004, at an auction in Geneva, Switzerland, an anonymous British buyer bought it for $1 million. Photo: GemSociety. |
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The Bahia Emerald is the name of a 381-kilogram rock containing 180,000 carats of emerald fragments discovered in a mine in the Brazilian rainforest in 2001. The value of the Bahia Emerald is about 400 million USD. Photo: Los Angeles Times. |
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The world's largest rough diamond, the 3,106-carat blue-white Cullinan, was discovered in a mine in South Africa in January 1905. Cullinan was cut into nine smaller diamonds. The two largest, Cullinan I and Cullinan II, were presented to King Edward VII of England on his birthday. The remaining seven, weighing a total of 208.29 carats, are owned by Queen Elizabeth II. Photo: Celsteel. |
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In 1956, the world's largest and most valuable opal, the Australis Olympus, was discovered at the Eight Mile Opal Mine in Coober Pedy, Australia. It weighs 17,000 carats, is 28 cm long, and more than 10 cm wide and high. The Australis Olympus is worth about $2 million. Photo: Celsteel. |
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The National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, USA, is home to the Dom Pedro, the world's largest aquamarine gemstone, weighing 10,363 carats. It was mined in Brazil in the late 1980s. Bernd Munsteiner, a gemstone artist, designed the aquamarine in the shape of a pyramid, 35.5 cm high, with a base of 10 cm wide. Photo: Shards of London. |
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Darya-ye Noor (Sea of Light) is the world's largest pink diamond, discovered in the Golconda diamond mines, India in 1739. It is 7.2 cm high, 5.3 cm wide, and weighs between 182 and 186 carats. Currently, Darya-ye Noor is kept at the Golestan Palace Museum, Iran. Photo: Wikimedia. |
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The Golden Jubilee is the world's largest faceted diamond, weighing 545.67 carats. Miners found the orange diamond in 1985 at the Premier Mine in South Africa. It was presented to the King of Thailand in 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his coronation. Photo: Wikimedia. |
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The Star of Adam is the world's largest blue sapphire, originating in the southern city of Ratnapura, Sri Lanka. The stone weighs 1,404 carats and is estimated to be worth around $100 million. Photo: Graham Hart. See also: The world's largest blue topaz |
According to VNE