The Jewelry Mart Blog

A solid gold helmet dating back to the 5th century BC and cherished as a national treasure by generations of Romanians was stolen in the predawn hours of Saturday morning when three hooded thieves used explosives to blow out a door at the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands.



The intruders took three minutes to abscond with the "Golden Helmet of Coțofenești," as well as three golden bracelets that dated back to the ancient Dacians. While the museum maintained overnight surveillance, no guards were on duty during the brazen 3:45 am attack.



All the stolen pieces had been borrowed from National History Museum of Romania for a seven-month exhibition called “Dacia – Empire of Gold and Silver.” The run had been scheduled to end on Sunday.

In a social media post, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the historical items have "incalculable value" and asked for a speedy recovery.

The Coțofenești helmet had been an international superstar, with previous museum appearances in Paris, Oxford, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Rotterdam, Florence and Lisbon. It was even featured on a gold coin series issued by the National Bank of Romania.

Romanian art historian Cornel Colceru told the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) that the helmet is particularly meaningful to Romanian national identity.

"Every child in Romania learns about this helmet in school. It’s the symbol of the Dacians and their treasures," he said.

The Dacian people lived in a region that currently includes parts of modern-day Romania and several nearby countries. Their kingdom lasted until 106 AD, when the Romans took control of the region.



Experts believe the helmet belonged to a Geto-Dacian king. Weighing 770 grams (about 1.7 pounds), the golden helmet is adorned with a blend of designs from ancient Eurasian and Greek cultures. It is comprised of three welded plates and is largely intact, except for the very top, which is missing.

According to romanian-insider.com, two children who were tending cattle noticed the partly buried helmet in 1928 after torrential rain eroded a hillside in the village of Coțofenești. The children played with the helmet, not knowing its value or origin. The kids' parents were also clueless and kept the helmet in their shed.

Smithsonianmag.com reported that a merchant from Ploiești, Romania, purchased the helmet from the family in 1929 and later donated it to the country's National Museum of Antiquities. It arrived at the National History Museum of Romania in the 1970s. In July of 2024, the helmet was lent to the Drents Museum for a seven-month exhibition.

“This is a dark day,” Harry Tupan, the general director of the Drents Museum, said in a statement. “We are intensely shocked by the events last night at the museum. In its 170-year existence, there has never been such a major incident. It also gives us enormous sadness towards our colleagues in Romania.”

Romanian authorities fear that the culprits will try to melt down the helmet for its gold value, about $75,000.

Meanwhile the Dutch police have asked for the assistance of Interpol, the international organization that specializes in transnational crime, and Dutch entrepreneur Alex van Breemen offered a reward of EUR 100,000 ($104,000) for any tip that could lead to the recovery of "Golden Helmet of Coțofenești."

Credit: Helmet of Coțofenești photo by Jerónimo Roure Pérez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Drents Museum photo by CrazyPhunk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Helmet detail photo by Laci3, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Faced with evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton neared landfall on Florida's west coast, Melissa Martin quickly packed the family cars with their most important personal items.



She remembered taking off her gold-and-platinum wedding band and placing it in her pocket as she tended the fish in her aquarium, but when she checked for the ring later that day, it wasn't there.

When the threat had passed and Martin was allowed to return home, she searched tirelessly for her ring. She searched inside her home. She searched the front yard. She even searched the edge of her neighbors yard, to no avail.

Martin feared that the ring she wore every day for the past 25 years would be gone forever.

"It really means the world to me," she told Tampa's CBS affiliate, WTSP.

Three months had passed when Martin was scrolling her Facebook feed and noticed a post about Steve Thomas, a local metal-detector enthusiast with a stellar record for finding the unfindable.

She reached out and he was ready to help. Thomas' home base is in Dunedin, just a 15-minute drive to Seminole, where Martin lives.

He called Melissa to set up a search.

"And what I do when I come over, I have that individual recreate what they thought they were doing when they lost their ring," Thomas said.



Thomas gathered a few clues.

According to Thomas' Ring Finder blog, Martin had made a number of trips to place personal items in the cars before evacuating. She also walked next door to check with her neighbors to see if they might secure their trash cans. Martin also remembered kicking something in the driveway that she thought at the time was a rock.



Armed with this information, Thomas targeted the yard in front of the house. Within a half hour he scored a reading of 71-72 on his Minelab Equinox 900 detector.



He probed the area with his handheld pinpointer and spotted the reflective edges of Martin's two-tone ring, which was half-buried in the grass.

Thomas knocked on Martin's door. When she opened it, he announced, "I think I found what we were looking for!"

"We walked over and I pulled the ring out of the grass where it had laid for over three months," Thomas wrote. "I handed it to her and Melissa began crying tears of joy."

"Oh, I cried," she told WTSP. "We were hugging, crying — it was such a wonderful moment."

Thomas is a member of The Ring Finders, a loosely knit network of more than 1,000 members in 25 countries. Each member shares a love of metal detecting and reuniting people with their cherished keepsakes. The group’s website claims that members have recorded more than 14,583 successful recoveries since it was founded 16 years ago.

Thomas charges nothing for his services, but he told The Jeweler Blog that he accepts rewards, which go right into a college fund that he established for his two grandsons, ages 2 1/2 and 9 months.

"For me, the first 'rush' comes with the find and the second one comes when I give the ring back to its owner," Thomas wrote on his blog. "This never gets old!"

Credits: Photo of Martin's wedding ring in the grass and photo of Martin with her ring courtesy of Steve Thomas. Screen captures of Thomas working the front yard via YouTube / 10 Tampa Bay.

When Julius Caesar led the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC, Scottish pearls were on his mind.



Pearls were a symbol of wealth and power in Ancient Rome, and at that time the world's very finest natural freshwater pearls came from the riverbeds of Scotland.

Legend states that natural pearls held more value than diamonds. They were held in such high esteem that Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC) passed a law where only aristocrats could wear pearls within Rome's borders.

One of the key goals for his military expedition to Britain in 55 BC was to gain control of the freshwater pearls of Scotland and acquire significant wealth.



The Roman general had a long-standing appreciation of pearls. During his consulship in 59 BC, he famously spent 6 million sesterces on a large black pearl for his mistress, Servilia Caepionis. That price tag would be equivalent to about $3 million in today's dollars.

The "Servilia" pearl has been featured in several works of fiction, including The Field of Swords (2005), Cleopatra: Whispers from the Nile (2016), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

Trivia: Servilia was also the mother of Marcus Brutus, who later assassinated Caesar.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caesar honored the pearl’s connection to Venus (he considered the Roman goddess of love and beauty to be his ancestor) and even adopted pearl as his personal symbol.

In mythology, Venus was born from the sea, similar to how a pearl is formed within an oyster. She was often portrayed in artwork as emerging from an oyster shell.

The British Isles, particularly regions such as Scotland and Wales, continued to produce natural freshwater pearls all the way until the end of the 20th century, when over-harvesting, illegal fishing and the degradation of the habitat brought that industry to its knees.

According to the Financial Times, efforts are being made to reverse the trend.

"Freshwater pearl fishing has been banned in Scotland since 1998, as well as in the European Union, with several programs desperately trying to help populations [of mollusks] recover and ensure the species’ viability," noted the publication.

The largest natural freshwater pearl ever found in Scotland measured 10.5 mm in size and weighed 10.91 carats. Called the Abernethy Pearl, the specimen was harvested in 1967 and was sold at auction in August 2024 for £93,951 ($117,200).

Credits: AI-generated battle image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3. Julius Caesar painting by Clara Grosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Freshwater pearls by James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you heartwarming songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country stars George Jones and Lacy J. Dalton sing about a very special piece of bridal jewelry in their 1984 duet, “Size Seven Round (Made of Gold).”



The song chronicles the love story of a couple, from their wedding day through their golden years. Even as they grow old together, her size-seven wedding band remains a shining symbol of their enduring relationship.

They sing, “Size seven, round and made of gold / This circle joins us heart and soul / And it won’t let our love grow cold / Size seven, round and made of gold.”

“Size Seven Round (Made of Gold)” appeared as the seventh track of George Jones’s 1984 album, Ladies’ Choice, which featured collaborations with nine famous female country artists. Twenty-one years later, the song returned on the 2005 reissue of the country legend’s LP, My Very Special Guests.

The song peaked at #19 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and #11 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart.

Born in a log cabin in the small town of Saratoga, TX, Jones got his first guitar at the age of nine. By 1955, at the age of 24, Jones had already served in the Marines, was married twice and recorded his first hit song, “Why Baby Why.” In 1969, he married Tammy Wynette. They were divorced six years later, although they continued to perform together after the breakup.

Jones told Billboard in 2006 that when it comes to his music, “It’s never been for the love of money. I thank God for it because it makes me a living. But I sing because I love it, not because of the dollar signs.”

Over a career that spanned seven decades, Jones is credited with charting 168 country songs, including 14 #1 hits. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. Jones passed away in 2013 at the age of 81.

Born Jill Lynne Byrem in Bloomsburg, PA, Lacy J. Dalton scored a number of hits songs in the 1980s, including “Takin’ It Easy,” “Crazy Blue Eyes” and “16th Avenue.” She’s still actively performing at the age of 78.

Please check out the audio track of the Jones/Dalton duet of “Size Seven Round (Made of Gold).” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Size Seven Round (Made of Gold)”
Written by Monroe Fields and Gary Lumpkin. Performed by George Jones and Lacy J. Dalton.

With all my love, my dreams and plans
I placed a ring upon your hand
To tell the endless love we found
Love’s golden band, size seven, round

Size seven, round and made of gold
This circle joins us heart and soul
And it won’t let our love grow cold
Size seven, round and made of gold

The years have passed, our ring is old
But time can’t tarnish pure love’s gold
Each day our love is young and new
There’s just no end to love that’s true.

Size seven, round and made of gold
This circle joins us heart and soul
And it won’t let our love grow cold
Size seven, round and made of gold.

Size seven, round and made of gold
This circle joins us heart and soul
And it won’t let our love grow cold
Size seven, round and made of gold.

Size seven, round and made of gold.



Credit: Photo by Epic Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

On the same day Donald J. Trump was inaugurated in Washington, DC, as the 47th US president, an Indian lab-grown diamond company half a world away unveiled a 4.7-carat diamond uniquely faceted in his image.



A team of five artisans from Surat-based Greenlab Diamonds LLP worked for three months on the project, which included growing the diamond in its lab, planning the design, and then meticulously cutting and polishing the gem to look like the US president's profile.



"Our vision has always been to create diamonds that embody significant moments and milestones," noted Smit Patel, Director of Finance & Marketing at Greenlab Diamonds. "This 4.7-carat masterpiece is a symbol of our appreciation for leadership and our deep connection with the US market."

The company had previously created the 7.5-carat lab-grown diamond that was gifted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to former US First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in 2023 in honor of India's 75th Independence Day.

Greenlab Diamonds intends to gift the D-color, 4.7-carat Trump diamond to the newly seated president at a later date. The company reportedly produces more than 1.5 million carats of lab-grown diamonds each year using environmentally friendly methods that are ethical, accessible and sustainable.

On Greenlab Diamonds' X page, the company gave a shout-out to Harsh Sanghavi, Home Minister of Gujarat, India, for sharing an image of the Trump diamond and acknowledging the Surat-based company's achievement.

The company wrote, "[Sanghavi's] support underscores the growing impact of lab-grown diamonds and the innovative work happening in Surat. This achievement showcases the exceptional craftsmanship of Surat's artisans and the cutting-edge innovation driving the lab-grown diamond industry. "

This is not the first time Trump has been immortalized in a gemstone. Just before his first term, in November of 2016, London-based Vip Art Ltd. released a likeness of Trump carved into the surface of a dark blue sapphire.

The Trump sapphire was one of 90 such portraits that the company had rendered in 3D on rubies, sapphires, topazes and other natural and synthetic gems. Previous subjects had included former US President George H. W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, Mahatma Gandhi and Pope John Paul II.

Credits: Images by Greenlab Diamonds LLP. via X / sanghaviharsh (Harsh Sanghavi, Home Minister of Gujarat, India).

Last spring, a Botswana diamond exploration company began employing artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of 380 gigabytes of survey data.



In less than nine months, Botswana Diamonds PLC — with an assist from a mineral prospectivity technology called Xplore — has already identified seven kimberlite anomalies and applied for three prospecting licenses. Kimberlite pipes are the rock formations where diamonds are typically found.

Xplore combines semantic technology with machine learning to rifle through a mountain of information. The exploration company’s database includes 32,000 drill hole logs, 228,000 soil sample results, 606 ground geophysical surveys and 375,000 km of airborne geophysical data.

The AI program essentially acts as an army of expert geologists to process and analyze the data, specifically looking for anomalies that point to the presence of kimberlite. The goal is to find drillable targets previously unseen.

"Kimberlites are difficult and very expensive to find," said Botswana Diamonds' Chairman, John Teeling. "Less than 8,000 have ever been discovered worldwide. To find seven potential kimberlites in a few months is an impressive accomplishment for the company."

If successful, Botswana Diamonds will be reaping huge rewards in a part of the world where high-quality diamonds are a fact of life.

The landlocked Republic of Botswana in southern Africa produces more high-quality diamonds than any other country in the world, except for Russia. Jwaneng, in southern Botswana, is regarded as the world’s richest diamond mine, and Orapa, in northeast Botswana, is the world’s largest diamond mine by area.

Botswana Diamonds is particularly excited about an AI-generated target just southwest of the Jwaneng Mine. The company noted in a press release that the anomaly signatures are ideal, and the anomaly suggests more than one potential kimberlite.

The Managing Director of Botswana Diamonds, James Campbell, sees AI as a monumental game changer when it comes to locating new diamond finds.

"There is a saying in the exploration industry that every time there is a significant change in technology, the exploration clock starts to tick again," Campbell said. "This happened with the re-discovery of AK6 (Karowe) by African Diamonds Plc and De Beers, where there was a step change in geophysical and drilling technology."

He continued, "I believe it is happening again with the maturing of artificial intelligence exploration solutions combined with massive data sets. I look forward to having 'boots on the ground' to take these exciting targets to the next stage."

As an added bonus for Botswana Diamonds and the Republic of Botswana, the AI-supported analysis will yield information on other valuable minerals, including gold, copper, lead and zinc.

Credit: AI-generated image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3.

On the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, there are three impressive specimens of a glassy yellowish gem so rare and so special that the ancient Egyptians used an identical material to adorn the breastplate of King Tutankhamun.



It's called Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) and it's found in only one location on Earth — the desolate Great Sand Sea north of the Gilf Kebir Plateau, just along the border of Libya and Egypt.

Geologists believe that LDG formed 29 million years ago when quartz-rich desert sand was liquified by a meteorite-generated heat burst of 3,600°F and then rapidly cooled.

The lack of an impact crater near the areas where LDG has been found lends credence to the theory that a meteorite may have exploded before touching down in the desert — but still generated enough heat to melt the sands. Scientists have compared LDG to trinitite, which is created when sand is exposed to the thermal radiation of a nuclear explosion.

When British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter entered the intact tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, he encountered thousands of luxury objects intended to accompany the boy king into the afterworld.

Among the items decorated with gold, silver and precious gemstones was a breastplate depicting the god Ra as a winged scarab carrying the sun and moon into the sky.

The scarab, dating back to 1323 BCE, was carved from a pale yellow stone that Carter originally identified as chalcedony, a translucent variety of quartz. A decade later, British geographer Patrick Clayton found samples of a similar glass-like material while exploring the Libyan Desert and classified it as Libyan Desert Glass.

King Tut's breastplate is currently on display in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, but will soon move to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza.

Credit: Photo by The Jeweler Blog.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you popular songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Marina Diamandis, aka Marina and the Diamonds, stays true to her name in the 2012 international hit, “Primadonna.”



In this song about a self-absorbed diva who “wants the world,” the sassy Welsh recording artist tries to coax a marriage proposal and a giant-size sparkler from her beau.

She sings, “Would you do anything for me? / Buy a big diamond ring for me? / Would you get down on your knees for me? / Pop the pretty question right now baby.”

Diamandis created her stage name by incorporating her first name with the translation of her surname, which means “diamonds” in Greek. She explained that “the Diamonds” part of “Marina and the Diamonds” does not refer to her backing band, but to her fans.

In an interview with Elle Girl, Diamandis described how her ex-boyfriend thought it was funny that she was a mega drama queen always talking "global love" this and "global love" that!

"He called me a prima donna… so I thought I'd channel this well-known, but kind of undesirable character type, into a pop song."

She told The Sun that the prima donna beauty queen in this song is a magnification of "certain parts of me and of every woman."

“Primadonna” was the lead single from the 39-year-old artist’s second studio album, Electra Heart. MTV Buzzworthy critic Sam Lansky described “Primadonna” as “a monster song,” and fans across the globe agreed. The release was an international sensation, charting in 13 countries. Within the first few hours of its release in March of 2012, the song became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, now known as X.

Born in Brynmawr, Wales, Diamandis moved to London as a teenager to pursue a music career. In 2009, at the age of 24, she placed second in the BBC’s “Sound of 2010” competition. That success led to her debut studio album, The Family Jewels.

Diamandis has three high-profile events on her 2025 calendar. She will be appearing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA, on April 11 and 18; The Governors Ball in Queens, NY, on June 7; and Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN, on June 13.

Please check out the video of Diamandis performing the acoustic version of "Primadonna." The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Primadonna”
Written by Marina Diamandis, Julie Frost, Lukasz Gottwald and Henry Walter. Performed by Marina and the Diamonds.

Primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave

Primadonna girl,
Would you do anything for me?
Buy a big diamond ring for me?
Would you get down on your knees for me?
Pop the pretty question right now baby

Beauty queen of the silver screen
Living life like I’m in a dream
I know I’ve got a big ego
I really don’t know why it’s such a big deal, though

I’m sad to the core, core, core
Everything is a chore, chore, chore
When you give I want more, more, more
I wanna be adored

Cause I’m a primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave

Primadonna girl
Fill the void up with celluloid
Take a picture, I’m with the boys
Get what I want cause I asked for it
Not because I’m really that deserving of it

Living life like I’m in a play
In the limelight I want to stay
I know I’ve got a big ego
I really don’t know why it’s such a big deal, though

Going up, going down, down, down
Anything for the crown, crown, crown
When the lights go down, down, down
I spin around

Cause I’m a primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave

Primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall
You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave
Primadonna girl



Credit: Photo by Justin Higuchi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A white gold wedding band pulled from the ashes symbolizes hope for a California firefighter who lost his home and possessions in a blaze that wiped out his Altadena neighborhood.



Chien Yu and his family were forced to flee when the wind-whipped fires rapidly descended on their home last week. He noticed an orange glow through the trees in his backyard and he knew it was time to go.

As soon as his wife and two young sons were secured, Yu reported to the firehouse to start a 16-hour shift to protect the property of his Altadena neighbors.



CNN's Erin Burnett met up with Yu on his first day back on the job and accompanied him on a tour of his own property, which had been reduced to rubble. The charred remains looked like a scene from a war zone.



Yu was emotional as he surveyed the devastation. He pointed to a concrete slab that used to be his front porch, and some tangled strings that were the only remains of the family's grand piano.

Yu told Burnett that his wife did manage to pack some stuff, but she and the kids are unrooted right now. The boys want to go back home and they want to go back to school, but both their home and school have been destroyed.

"I just wanted normalcy. So that's why I came back to work," Yu told Burnett. "But it's never going to be the same for the kids."

As a firefighter, Yu sees destruction everyday. But, Yu said this experience has been indescribable.

"I mean, you know, when we go to a house fire, you kind of detach, and you just sort of do what's best for the homeowner and you put their fire out and we kind of salvage what we can," he said. "We pull what we can... And hopefully some of their stuff makes it."

Then he took a breath and looked at his own property and said, "But this is just just gone."



A moment later, CNN cut to a shot of two other firefighters sifting through the ashes on Yu's property.

"What's that? What's that?" Burnett shouted as a firefighter pulled a small, round object from the rubble and handed it to Yu. "Oh, my God."



It was Yu's wedding ring.

"Chien, what's your wife going to say?" asked an excited Burnett.

"She didn't know [it was missing]," he said. "Now everybody knows where we found it."



CNN then cut to a scene of Yu's wife, Kim's, reaction upon seeing the dusty, but cherished, ring. She was overwhelmed with emotion as she hugged her husband.



CNN viewers sensed that the ring is now a symbol of the strength of their bond and commitment to rebuild. They hope to stay in Altadena, not far from where Yu grew up.

"Yeah, we want to be back," he said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the family's Go Fund Me page had accumulated $216,000 in donations from 2,700 individuals. That's 87% of the way to their target goal of $250,000.

You can visit their Go Fund Me page here…

See Burnett's five-minute report here…

Credits: Screen captures via cnn.com.

As Los Angeles residents try to salvage what remains of their ravaged homes after devastating wildfires swept through their communities this past week, you might be wondering about the condition of the diamond jewelry they may find in the ashes.



How a diamond ring survives a blazing inferno has a lot to do with the temperature of the fire and whether or not the jewelry was stored in a fire safe.

House fires typically reach 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, but can get as high as 2,000 degrees in extreme conditions, such as the ones generated by the ferocious wind-whipped wildfires seen in California.

An average fire safe can protect its jewelry contents up to a temperature of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. And even without the safe, a gold and diamond ring may survive because the melting point of the precious metal is about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and the ignition temperature of a diamond is about 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit.

While diamond sits alone atop the Mohs scale as the hardest naturally occurring material known to man, it is made of carbon. And like other carbon materials, such as graphite or coal, diamond can burn.

Under regular conditions, the ignition occurs at about 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit. In a lab setting, when surrounded by pure oxygen, diamonds will start combusting at 1320 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a 12-year-old YouTube video that has been viewed 719,000 times, British scientist and author Peter Wothers enlisted the help of Nobel prize-winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto to demonstrate what it takes to get a diamond to burn.

Wothers added a bit of drama and comic relief by using Kroto’s wife’s engagement diamond for the experiment. The viewer can see Kroto getting increasingly more uncomfortable as it becomes very clear that his wife’s diamond — under just the right conditions — has ignited.

In his preliminary experiment, Wothers easily set ablaze a bit of graphite using a torch in an environment of pure oxygen. Then he upped the ante by doing the exact same experiment using the Kroto engagement diamond.

Surprisingly, that lit up, too. The diamond burned as a golden ember without producing any flames. At that point, Kroto half-jokingly commented that he hoped Wothers could afford to pay for a replacement diamond.

As you might have figured out by now, Wothers had cleverly swapped the Krotos’ engagement diamond with a much lower quality specimen before the experiment began. (Kroto passed away in 2016 at the age of 76.)

On its website, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) confirmed that house fires and jewelers' torches can reach a temperature sufficient for a diamond to burn. It even provided an photo of what a scorched diamond looks like. Instead of being transparent, the diamond is marred by a white, cloudy surface (like frost on a window).

The GIA noted that a diamond with this type of blemish can be recut, reducing the diamond's size, but leaving no sign that it was ever damaged.

If you’re worried about how a diamond is protected when a ring setting needs to be retipped, for example, be assured that jewelers go to great lengths to make sure that the extreme heat of the torch does not affect the gemstone. Some jewelers use boric acid to protect the stone while others depend on the pinpoint accuracy of a laser welder to keep the diamond out of harm’s way.

Please check out Wothers' demonstration below...



Credit: AI-generated image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3.