This week on the diamond blog we will focus on the history of diamonds in the United Kingdom.

Although the United Kingdom doesn't have any significant diamond mines in its own turf, the British have been very involved in the diamond business since the days of British Colonization. In the 1800s, the British established a colony on the southern edge of Africa. The purpose of this colony was mostly ideological and strategic, but things changed when diamonds were discovered in Kimberley in 1870.

The discovery led many United Kingdom citizens to immigrate to the South Africa, spreading the British influence into the hinterland. One British citizen who arrived in South Africa with diamonds on his mind was Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes managed to buy all the smaller diamond mining operations in the Kimberley area, which granted him control over the world's supply of diamonds and eventually led to the birth of diamond giant De Beers.

De Beers store, London

The United Kingdom has also had a close relationship with another important diamond abundant country – India. The United Kingdom has had a foothold in India for centuries, importing many types of goods from India to Great Britain. Aside for mass quantities of tea, the British learned about diamond trade from the Indians, and the two cultures became intertwined with one another.

Exclusive Bond Street

Decades after the demise of the British Empire, Britain has remained a major international power. The 1960s saw another British invasion – only this time, it was a cultural one. England, and specifically London, became the international capital of the arts, music, tourism and trade. Visitors from all around the world, including wealthy sheiks and rich Indian businessmen come to London for site-seeing and trade.

London is considered a business capital, and many of world's richest people settle in the city, mostly due to tax benefits that make London an easier place to do business. Even Lev Leviev, the world's biggest private diamond trader, decided to move from Israel to London in 2007. Leviev, who owns diamond stores in London, New York and Dubai, settled in the luxurious Bond Street. However, Leviev picked possibly the worst time to move to London as the global financial crisis broke out several months later.

Photo Credit: Philipp Klinger, maistora, doc18 & clagnut

Diamonds come in all shapes and sizes. Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. But there are some natural wonders, such as the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest, whose beauty is objectively undeniable. And while diamonds as a whole are a rare and costly commodity, some diamonds are worth more than others. Over the course of history, miners have found diamonds that were so extraordinary, they became legends.

For example, the Wittelsbach Diamond, a 35.56 blue diamond with an extraordinary pattern made of 82 facets, which was a prized possession of a long lineage of kings and queens. Or the Orlov, an Indian mogul cut diamond, believed to have once served as the eye of a Hindu deity statue. And what about the Golden Eye? No, not the James Bond movie starring Pierce Bronson, the Golden Eye Diamond is a 43.5 carat Canary Yellow diamond, which is considered the largest flawless perfect cut Canary Yellow diamond in the world.

There are dozens of other examples, but instead of listing them all, I present to you: the Top Five Diamonds of the World!

5. The Millennium Star

Weighing 203.04 carats, the Millennium Star is the second largest top-color diamond in the world. It was first unveiled during a De Beers display in October 1999. It has absolutely no internal or external flaws, and is shaped like a pear. The rough diamond was found in the Mbuji-Mayi district of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1990, and initially weighed 777 carats. It was cut into three pieces, the Millennium Star being the largest of them. De Beers hasn't revealed its actual value, but it has been insured for £100 million.

4. The Spirit of de Grisogono

This deep, dark beauty is the world's largest cut black diamond, and the 5th largest diamond overall. Although cut in the same Mogul diamond cutting technique, it is much larger than the Black Orlov, weighing at 312.24 carats, while the original rough diamond was 587 carats. It is set in a white gold ring with 702 smaller white diamonds totaling 36.69 carat. It's whereabouts are currently unknown.

3. The Incomparable Diamond

No diamond can compare to this diamond! Hence the name. Discovered in Mbuji Mayi, its weight as a rough diamond was a whooping 890 carats. After four years of studying the rock, it was cut into a 407.48 carat gem, and is the third largest diamond ever to be cut. And it would have been number one, if it wasn't for those meddling internal flaws! The Incomparable Diamond was cut by a team led by Marvin Samuels, who was the co-owner of the stone together with Donald Zale of Zales Jewellers and Louis Glick.

2. The Cullinan I - aka the Star of Africa

The Cullinian Diamond is the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever to be found. It's original weight totaled at 3,106.75! It was cut into nine large gems, the most notable of them being the Cullinan II – The Lesser Star of Africa, and The Cullinan I - the First Star of Africa, weighing 317.4 carats and 530.2 carats respectively. It was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, who owned the South African diamond mine where the massive rock was found. The estimated value of the Cullinan I is over $400 million!

1. The Golden Jubilee

Here it is ladies and gentleman – The Golden Jubilee! Weighing 545.67 carats, it is today the largest faceted diamond in the world, stealing the title away from Cullinan I in 1985. In the past, in the was called the Unnamed Brown, and was considered an unattractive piece. But after it was treated by  Gabriel Tolkowsky, who was instructed by De Beers to test new tools and cutting methods that had never been used before, this ugly ducking was turned into a beautiful yellow-brown diamond. Today, it is the property of the King of Thailand, who received it as a present for the 50th Anniversary of his coronation in 1997.

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Are your diamonds pure? This question used to refer to matters of clarity, cut and color, but today there is another sense of purity that's being considered: the procedure in which the diamond was mined and the way it got to your neighborhood diamond dealer. Partnership Africa Canada Executive Director Bernard Taylor, for one, feels that tainted diamonds should be prevented from entering the clean diamond stream.

Taylor made this statement in relation to the recent recommendation made by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to suspend the import and export of rough diamonds in Zimbabwe for a period of six months, due to claims of foul-play.

It is no secret that the Marange Diamond Fields in Zimbabwe are controversial at best, but this recent recommendation by Kimberley Process puts an official seal on the demand for change. This is perhaps due to growing awareness what's going on in Zimbabwe, thanks to the human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Unicef and Not On Our Watch, an organization founded by international superstars such as George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

No doubt that the 2006 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio about this topic also helped raise awareness among the public, as films sometimes manage to succeed where humanitarian movements don't.

The Zimbabwean government claims that a ban on its diamond industry would damage the nation's economy and its attempts to recover in the midst of the global financial crisis. Taylor, however, does not agree, and states that the export of diamonds from Zimbabwe amounted to a mere $33 million, clearly not a significant portion of the country's economy.

The rights to the Marange mining field were owned by Diamond Giant De Beers from the early 1980s till 2006, when its Exclusive Prospecting Order expired and the government of Zimbabwe took over the mines. In almost an instance, some 10,000 illegal miners arrived in Marange and started operating in small plots there, selling their diamonds to the government.

But this quickly changed as a black market developed for these diamonds, and the area has been subject to conflict ever since. To deal with illegal miners and diamond smugglers, the government sent its militia forces to deal with the problem and take control of the area.

This situation nonetheless is about to change, as one of Kimberley Process's recommendations was to remove the Zimbabwe militant presence from the area. This course of action, intended to tone down the violence in the area, might actually destabilize the area even more if diamond smugglers are allowed to roam free.

It is clear that a strong widespread international intervention and regulation is required here, in order to keep the diamond extraction process in Zimbabwe pure and violence-free. It is important for all of us to remember that the purity of life is just as important as the purity of a diamond.

Photo Credit: annansi.com & stephend9

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