Golden Empress

And that is an impressive weight for an empress. Jewelry house Graff buys the empress in the rough when she is still a raw yellow diamond of 299 carats. Her origin lies, contrary to what her name suggests, in Lesotho and, to be precise, the Letšeng mine. Lesotho is a small kingdom surrounded by South Africa. It is therefore not surprising that such a rare diamond was found there, especially when you consider that the largest diamonds in the world, the Golden Jubilee (545.67 carats) and the Cullinan I, or the Great Star of Africa (530.40 carats), come from neighboring South Africa.

The diamond is set in a necklace of approximately 30 yellow diamonds. How much the 'Golden Empress' will yield is anyone's guess.

With diamonds, rarity equals value. Normally, the value of diamonds is determined by the absence of any color. Colorless diamonds are the rarest. The so-called 'fancy colored' diamonds fall outside the normal color range used to determine the value of colorless diamonds.

The rarest and most valuable 'fancy colored' diamonds are red, pink, green, and blue. This does not mean, however, that 'fancy' yellow and brown diamonds cannot have a high value. 1 in 10,000 diamonds receives the classification 'Fancy colored'.

The Cullinan I, also known as the Star of Africa, is 530.40 carats and was the largest cut diamond until 1985. The brown Golden Jubilee diamond, with its 545.67 carats, is now the largest diamond. The Cullinan is the largest white diamond. Both diamonds have the same origin, the Premier Mine, near Pretoria in South Africa.

Photo source: internet