THE CULLINAN DIAMOND.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 42, 22 June 1908, Page 7

THE CULLINAN DIAMOND.

:■ » What it the Cullinan diamond worth? It is the largest, and,, presumably, therefore, the most valuable gem of its kind in the world, has aroused fresh interest in the muclidiscussed question as to the real intrinsic value of this unique carbon crystal. It is a question upon which no two experts are agreed. The huge gem, when first brought to England from South Airier, in 1905, was insured for £500,000, and was said to be worth upwards of a million sterling. Yet to-day its selling price is officially quoted as being £150,000 qnly ; not an extraordinary figure, one would imagine, for a diamond that turns the scale at nearly twenty ounces Troy. Indeed, according to the recognised rules for computing the value of large diamonds, it ought to be worth nearer £150,000,000 than £150,000. For the Bragaza diamond, which lies uncut in the Treasury qf King Carlos, of Portugal, weighs only 1,680 carats, as against the Cullinan’s 3,025. Yet it is valued by Mr. E. W. Streeter (in his "Precious Stones and Gems") at £58,350,000, and wOs computed by Rqmeo de l’lsle to bo worth no lees than £224, 000,000. The Kohri-noor; again, is valued at upwards 6f two millions, yet it weighs only 102£ carats ; while the actual prioes paid for the Pitt diamond (106 carats) and the Orloff diamond (193 carats) were £125,000 and £104,000 respectively. Compared with such sums as these, disbursed for gems of such relatively small size, the price propqsed to be paid tot the Cullinan is ridiculously small.

It is possible that the much-vaunted stone is not really a diamond at all, but only a white topaz masquerading as such ?