World's famous diamonds.

More notorious than any other diamond. The Hope was once owned by Louis XIV and was officially designated the ‘blue diamond of the crown.’ Stolen during the French Revolution, it turned up in London in 1830 and was bought by Henry Philip Hope after whom it is currently named. At that time it acquired its gruesome reputation for bad luck: all the Hope family died in poverty. A similar misfortune befell a later owner, Edward McLean. You can see the Blue Hope today at the Smithsonian in Washington.

This 3,106 carat diamond is the largest gem diamond ever found. It was discovered in 1905 at the Premier mines in South Africa by Frederick Wells, a mine superintendent. He was walking through the mine at the end of the day, when he happened to glance up. He noticed a large mass in one side of the mine wall. Thinking it was a big piece of glass embedded by a practical joker he examined what turned out to be a huge diamond. Wells received $10,000 for his find. The diamond was named Cullinan,