WORLD's MOST EXPENSIVE AND RARE DIAMOND

KOH-I-NOOR
(UNESTIMATED, PRICELESS)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: INDIA
CURRENT OWER: THE BRITISH CROWN
WEIGHT: 186 1/16 CARATS (37.21 g)
COLOR: FINEST WHITE

The Koh-i-Noor, the meaning of which is "Mountain of Light" in Urdu. It is a 105.6 metric carats diamond, weighing 21.6 grammes in the most recent cut state, and once the largest known diamond. The Koh-i Nur is believed to have originated in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India together with its double, the Darya-ye Noor (the "Sea of Light"). The diamond has belonged to various Hindu, Rajput, Mughal, Iranian, Afghan, Sikh and British rulers who fought bitterly over it and seized it as a spoil of war time and time again.

Legend has it that the diamond originally belonged to the Dhruvin Chavdas. The diamond probably came from the Kollur mines, near the village in the present-day Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, India.

The first confirmed historical mention of the Koh-i Noor by an identifiable name dates from 1526. Bābur mentions in his memoirs, the Bābur-Nāmah, that the stone had belonged to an unnamed Raja of Gwalior, who was compelled to yield his prized possession in 1294 to 'Alā'uddīn Khiljī. It was then owned by the Tughlaq dynasty and Lodī dynasty, and finally came into the possession of Bābur himself in 1526. He called the stone 'the Diamond of Bābur' at the time, although it had been called by other names before he seized it from Ibrāhīm Lodī.

Taken from India to England

Ranjīt Singh was crowned ruler of the Punjab region. However, after his death in 1839 the British administrators did not execute his will. On 29 March 1849, the British raised their flag on the citadel of Lahore and the Punjab was formally proclaimed part of the British Empire in India.

In due course the Governor-General received the Koh-i-Noor from Login, who had been appointed Governor of the Citadel, the Royal Fort at Lahore, with the Royal Treasury, which Login valued at almost £1,000,000 (£81.6 million as of 2013), excluding the Koh-i Noor, on 6 April 1848, under a receipt dated 7 December 1849, in the presence of the members of the Board of Administration —the local resident H.M. Lawrence, C.C. Mansel, John Lawrence, younger brother of H.M. Lawrence, and of Sir Henry Elliot, Secretary to the Government of India. The jewel was then sent to England in the care of John Lawrence, and C.C. Mansel for presentation to Queen Victoria, sailing from Bombay in the paddle sloop HMS Medea under strict security arrangements.






WORLD's MOST EXPENSIVE DIAMOND

 KOH-I-NOOR

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