As a rough
stone The Golden Jubilee weighted 755 carats and was discovered in Premier
mine, South Africa in 1985. After cut The Golden Jubilee became the largest
faceted diamond in the world, weighing 545.67 carats, which means 15,47 carats more than The Culinan
I.
The
stone was designed by Gabi Tolkowsky, who also
designed the 273.85-carat Centenary Diamond. Tolkowsky
describes the Golden Jubilee's cut as a "fire rose cushion cut" and
commented “within its heart lay a wonderfully mysterious shine that
gave the diamond a character unlike any other”. Its color
has been graded as "fancy yellow-brown" and because of this the
stone was simply known as the Unamed Brown before
getting its real name in 1988.
The
“Golden Jubilee” was presumed to be the most unattractive discolored diamond. The famous diamond was given for testing
special equipments and cutting methods which was
mainly developed for detecting flawless These sorts of tools and techniques
were never tested previously, but it seemed that “The Golden
Jubilee” was made guinea pig for this experimentation. A large surface
and deep cracks from the interior, as well as several inclusions, meant that
cutting and polishing the big diamond presented challenges.
When
the brown diamond was cut it was given the name “The Golden Jubilee”
but in this procedure, this “Unnamed brown stone” transformed
into yellow and brown colored diamond which had a
shape of rose cushion cut
Tolkowsky examinating the diamond
In the year
1988, the “Centenary”
diamond was already being selected as the greatest diamond in the ceremony of
the De Beers. The rare Golden Jubilee diamond was transported to Thailand for
the exhibition in Laem Chang known as “Thai
Board of Investment Exhibition”
In
1997 the Golden Jubilee was presented to the King of Thailand for his Golden
Jubilee - the 50th anniversary of his coronation. This precious stone was
brought to the country by the Thai Diamond Manufacturers Association.
It
is being heard that the diamond has been purchased from the De Beers by a
team of people headed by Henry Ho, of Thailand.
Trivia Tidbit: the government of Thailand reported
the stone as being a large golden topaz so as not to irritate the citizens --
Thailand has been in financial trouble for some years now, and the news of
the purchase of the massive diamond would only make the popularity of the
government drop.
The
diamond is now on display in the Royal Museum at Pimammek
Golden Temple Throne Hall in Bangkok and its estimation value is. is $4-$12 million.
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