Science & technology

Discovery of Cullinan Diamond

26 January 1905

The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, at over three thousand carats. It was discovered at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa and named after the mine's chairman, Thomas Cullinan. The Transvaal government bought it and presented it to King Edward VII in 1907 as a gesture of reconciliation after the Boer War. It was cleaved and cut in Amsterdam by the firm of Joseph Asscher into nine major stones and many smaller ones. The two largest, known as Cullinan I and II, are part of the British Crown Jewels, set in the Sovereign's Sceptre and the Imperial State Crown.

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