A Woman Shocked to Discover the Diamond She “Almost Threw in the Trash” is Worth $2.7 Million.
A retired woman in her 70s living in Northumberland, England, purchased the diamond at an auto parts store. Initially, she thought it was a worthless piece of costume jewelry until a neighbor convinced her to have it appraised when they saw her about to throw it away.
The woman was astonished to learn that the sparkling stone was a genuine diamond, weighing 34 carats, valued at approximately $2.7 million.
Mark Lane, a representative from Featonby’s Auctioneers in North Shields, England, recounted that the woman walked into the appraisal shop with a bag of jewelry but was not confident that it contained real diamonds. She entered the store after passing by and noticing it while preparing for a nearby meeting.
The diamond is larger than a one-pound coin.
Mark Lane stated: “The glimmering stone was in a box with the woman’s wedding ring and some other lower-value jewelry. The woman intended to throw it away because she thought it was worthless. We discovered that the stone was quite large, bigger than a one-pound coin. Initially, I thought it was a type of synthetic diamond. We used a diamond tester and then sent it to experts in Antwerp, Belgium for confirmation. They examined it thoroughly and confirmed that the diamond is a genuine 34-carat, extremely rare HVS1.”
Mark Lane shared that the diamond, larger than a one-pound coin, is the biggest diamond he has seen in five years of running the company. The diamond is currently being kept in a secure location in Hatton Gardens, London, before it goes up for auction on November 30.
This incident in England was a fortunate case for the owner, who made the right decision before it was too late. In a less fortunate situation, a woman named Rachel Spiegel had to rummage through a trash heap at a waste processing facility in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, USA, to recover her expensive diamond ring.
