Weighing almost a half pound, The Star of Sierra Leone is the third largest rough diamond ever discovered.
At 969.80 carats, the Star of Sierra Leone is the third largest rough diamond ever discovered. It was found on February 14, 1972, at the Diminco Mine in Sierra Leone.
Harry Winston purchased the Star of Sierra Leone the same year. He had it cut into 17 stones: 13 were flawless.
Originally the largest stone was 143.20 carats of fine colour, but flawed. After several weeks of careful deliberation he ordered it to be recut.
The largest stone recovered from The Star of Sierra Leone rough was a flawless pear-shaped of 53.96 carats.
The rough had been studied for more than a year by Lazare Kaplan, the famous cutter. It was cleaved in front of all American telvision.
I looked at the image on http://www.capetowndiamondmuseum.org/about-diamonds/famous-diamonds/ and uncut it wasn’t that pretty. However, it was pretty big and a great find. I do wonder if jewelers ever get nervious about cutting such large and valuable diamonds. If they make a mistake, it could downgrade the value in a rush.
February 14th is Valentine’s Day…which adds a nice twist to the tale…even so, a picture is worth a thousand words? ^^~~~~