Cullinan Diamond
The Cullinan diamond was found below the surface at Premier Mine in Cullinan, Transvaal Colony, by Frederick Wells, surface manager at the mine, on 26 January 1905. It was approximately long, wide, deep, and weighed . Newspapers called it the "Cullinan Diamond", a reference to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who opened the mine in 1902. It was three times the size of the Excelsior Diamond, found in 1893 at Jagersfontein Mine, weighing . Four of its eight surfaces were smooth, indicating that it once had been part of a much larger stone broken up by natural forces. It had a blue-white hue and contained a small pocket of air, which at certain angles produced a rainbow, or Newton's rings.
Excelsior Diamond
Finally, after the diamond sat in the vault waiting for a buyer for many years, the owners made the decision to cut the stone into several smaller stones. This decision meant that the Excelsior would never be a single large spectacular faceted stone. At the time, the manager of the De Beers diamond syndicate said that the dividing of the stone into many small pieces was "the greatest tragedy of modern times in the history of famous diamonds". In retrospect, diamond experts feel that it should have been cut to yield a single large diamond. Why it was not, remains a mystery. By contrast, the owners of the Cullinan Diamond cut that stone in such a way that the largest faceted diamond in the world came from it. The fate of the Excelsior kept it out of the Smithsonian or other historical museums. It was cut without regard to its historical significance, divided into small, easily sold assorted stones. The named pieces were: