Posted on 02/04/2022 12:48:50 PM PST by Red Badger
The largest cut diamond in the world is about to go up for auction. The extraordinary jewel, nicknamed "The Enigma" is a billions-year-old Fancy Black diamond that is rumored to originate from space.
According to the auction house, the stone is a carbonado black diamond, which are extremely rare, occur naturally, and usually date from 2.6 to 3.8 billion years old. It contains nitrogen and hydrogen but also a mineral called osbornite usually found in meteorites, which suggests an outer space connection.
What that connection is exactly is unclear, however. Extraterrestrial diamonds from meteorites are tiny, usually nano-sized. This diamond is anything but nano. It weighs 555.55 carats (111.11 grams), about the same as a bar of soap. Diamonds are made of carbon so they form as carbon atoms under a high temperature and pressure. They bond together to start growing crystals. The Enigma could have formed in the collision between an asteroid and our planet, or meteoritic material somehow survived the high heat and pressure of the natural diamond formation.
Maybe whoever buys it will be intrigued enough to find out.
VIDEO AT LINK...............
The natural faceted diamond has been polished into exactly 55 facets. The work of cutting one of the hardest stones in the world took several years, concluding in 2004. In 2006, it won the Guinness World Record for the largest cut diamond in the world.
Since then, there has not been much news about this diamond. It has not been on the market nor exhibited to the public. Now it is going to be auctioned by Sotheby's and will be exhibited in Dubai, Los Angeles, and London. The diamond will be offered "without reserve" — the winning bid will be the highest bid, regardless of the bid value or the value of the diamond itself — but the rock is expected to fetch over $6 million, reports BBC News.
Interestingly, Sotheby's has said cryptocurrency will be accepted as payment, marking a turning point in buying physical highly valuable objects.
The peculiar design is inspired by the Hamsa, the palm-shaped symbol seen in Middle-Eastern and North African countries, used often as a sign of protection against evil but also of power and strength.
Yes, inclusions, pits, and other flaws in the diamond which detract from it’s value. Black diamonds are slightly heavier and a tiny slight bit harder than other color diamonds. Only a very fractional percentage though. Heavier due to the inclusions and pollution that gives them the color. Harder is another question that I have not seen any research to explain why.
They also burn (yes, diamonds will burn) at a very slightly lower temperature than other diamonds… likely because of the inclusions and higher hydrogen content.
Give him time. The rewards are certainly much better.
Maybe he could hit it with a rock
Thank you for your interesting and informative posts as well as those beautiful images of your craft.
It looks like a hunk of black glass.
I didn’t make them, I designed them. I hired a skilled jeweler to make them from my drawings and the stones I supplied from my collection. Phil at AK Jewelers did the crafting. He took my designs and ran with them. I have made jewelry years ago, but not up to this level of skill. I took one class.
Even so....I’m especially intrigued by that tension mount.
That’s pretty neat.
Tension mounting is pretty risky for a 6.5 carat stone… we tested it extensively before we decided it would hold. Usually it’s not used for anything larger than a 1-2carat stone, but the triple prong approach was robust enough.
We tried a straight tension mount for my 16.5 carat stone, but it wouldn’t stay tight. We had to add the prongs to keep it in the mount. I was not pleased about my straight clean lines being broken up by the prongs, but I’d have had to go down to a stiffer gold content (say 10 karat) and even that would have been iffy. I did not want to risk losing the stone. Even so, the prongs need to be tightened every three months or so, if I wear it daily.
Spectacular.
I bid $5.
Thanks
I had had a 91.89 carat black diamond just slightly smaller (1/16th inch) than the 121 carat one pictured (Cubed Square law makes a big difference in weight to size) which got stolen by a guy who claimed he had a buyer who was very interested in it. He asked to take it to show it to him and left some property of about equivalent value with me. He never came back and the property he left turned out to be “stolen”, i.e. borrowed from a friend who he had never bothered to return it to.
I’m still looking for him, so is his erstwhile ‘friend’ because of the things missing from inside the ‘borrowed’ property. The police claimed it was a civil matter and refused to open a fraud case, because he left a “bond.”
The tort itself is beyond the statute of limitations on the thefts, but I have some friends who have volunteered to teach him the errors of his ways… they are affiliated with a small motorcycle club which has the initials of HA.
Neutron stars and black holes are what happens. It is the rebound from the collaspe that causes the explosion. The stuff in the center stays where it is. There easily could have been a carbon layer , however , that produced the black diamonds.
Does it come with instructions DO NOT PLACE NEAR OPEN FLAME.
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden..........
Sure! a really large one!...............
BEAUTIFUL!............................
Alexandra is a Red Badger
Apparently real....................
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