This famous brown coloured diamond was originally cut from a rough diamond gem stone which weighed a huge 248.9 carats and was found within the well-known Jagersfontein Mine, South Africa in 1967. It wasn’t spotted immediately because the colour was so unusual, so it travelled through the entire recovery process until it was uncovered on the grease table at the plant. The appearance of the diamond caused a huge commotion at the mine because whilst many fine diamonds were found at Jagersfontein Mines there were very few that were brown and few diamonds of this weight.

The uncovering of The Earth Star Diamond was from a 2,500 foot deep mining process which dug deep into a volcanic diamond-bearing pipe.

The Earth Star Diamond was bought by Baumgold Bros. of New York, who cut it into a pear shape which weighed 111.59 carats. At this time, in the late 60’s, this was the largest brown faceted diamond to have been found in the world. The degree of brilliance on this diamond was significantly better than most other diamonds to have been mined. It is the combination of both the colour and the sheer brilliance of its shine that led Joseph Baumgold to name it the Earth Star.