The Akbar Shāh, also known as the "Lustre of the Peacock Throne", is a diamond dating back to the Mughal dynasty of India. It is an irregular, pear-shaped diamond with a light green hue, weighing 73.60 carat.

The Akbar Shāh diamond was once the property of the Mughal emperor Akbar, hence its name. It was engraved on two faces with inscriptions in Arabic, by order of his grandson Shāh Jahān. The English translation of them is 'Shāh Akbar, the Shāh of the World, 1028', and 'To the Lord of two worlds, 1039". The dates are given according to the Hijrī years, and correspond to 1618 and 1629 of the Christian era.

It is believed by some historians that this celebrated gem was set as one of the eyes of the peacock in the fabulous Peacock Throne. However, other scholars suggest the possibility of it being the dazzling diamonds encircled by emeralds and rubies, suspended opposite the throne.

In any case, the diamond disappeared. If it had been set in the Peacock Throne it would have disappeared when the Persian Emperor Nādir Shāh carried the throne off as booty in 1739. The throne was lost on its way back to Iran in a battle with Kurds, who broke it up for the value of the metal and stones.

In any case the stone eventually reappeared in Turkey, where it had been given the new name 'Shepherd's Stone'. It was then purchased in 1866 in Istanbul by London merchant George Blogg, who commissioned Levi Moses Auerhaan to re-cut it into drop-form. Unfortunately the historic inscriptions were destroyed in the process. The stone, which had originally weighed 120 Arabic carats (about 119 metric carats 23 g), had been reduced to 73.60 metric carats (14.34 g). In the following year the diamond was purchased by Malhār Rāo, the Gaekwad of Baroda, India, for what was said to have been 350,000 rupees (about £26,000).

The information available on the historic Akbar Shah/Jahangir Shah diamond, comes mainly from Edwin Streeter's book "The Great Diamonds of the World, Their History and Romance" published in 1882, in which the diamond is said to have possessed a weight of 120 Arabic carats or 116 English carats. It is also said to have adorned one of the eyes of the peacock in the renowned peacock throne of Shah Jahaan. Besides this nothing is said about the color, clarity or the shape/cut of the diamond. However, the fact that the diamond is a rare inscribed diamond belonging to the classic period of the Mughal empire, we can make some plausible inferences, by comparing with other inscribed diamonds of this period, such as the Shah diamond and the Taj Mahal/Nur Jahan diamond.

The Shah diamond with three inscriptions by three different rulers of different periods and kingdoms, is a table-cut, light yellow diamond with good clarity and transparency. The Taj Mahal/Nur Jahan diamond is a heart-shaped, table-cut, white or colorless diamond. Accordingly it is seen that only white/colorless diamonds or light-colored diamonds, with good clarity are usually selected for inscribing, and the cut chosen for the diamond, before inscribing, is usually the simple cut, known as the table-cut or lasque, that has few large facets, providing the required surface for the inscription. Hence, the Akbar Shah/Jahangir Shah diamond was undoubtedly a table-cut diamond, with two of its large facets inscribed in Arabic characters. The color of the diamond must have been white or colorless, the usual color of diamonds selected for engraving. Even Edwin Streeter has failed to mention the color of the diamond, in his account of the diamond in Chapter XXV of his book. The clarity of the diamond must also have been exceptional, going by the clarity of other inscribed diamonds.

1. Koh-I-Noor : (Unestimated, Priceless)

Koh-I-Noor means as “Mountain of Light” from Persian. It’s a 105 carat (21.6 grams) diamond that was once the largest known diamond in the world. The Koh-I-Noor was originated at Golconda in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. It was owned by various Sikh, Mughal and Persian rulers that fought each other from time to time. The stone was found to measure 36.00 × 31.90 × 13.04 mm. The gem remains the property of the British crown and is kept in HM Tower of London and it’s a popular tourist attraction.

2. The Sancy Diamond : (Unestimated, Priceless)

The Sancy diamond is 55.23 carat (11.05 grams) of pale yellow diamond that once was famous as the belonging of the Great Moguls. It’s believed that the diamond is Indian origin. This is the first large diamonds to be cut with symmetrical facets. The stone is also unusual because it has no pavilion – just a pair of crowns, one on the other. This historical diamond is now kept in the French Crown Jewel collection housed at the Louvre.

3. The Cullinan: $400 Million

The Cullinan Diamond is 3,106,75 carats (621.35 grams) and is the largest rough gem quality diamond ever found in the world. After polished it became Cullinan I. At 530.2 carats, (106.0 grams) it was the largest diamond in the world until 1985 when the Golden Jubilee of 545.67 carats, (109.13 grams) was found at the same mine.

4. The Hope Diamond: $350 Million.

The Hope Diamond is a 45.52 carat (9.10 gram) large diamond that is now located in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. The diamond looks blue in color to the naked eye because the number of traces of boron in the crystal structure but it shines red under ultraviolet light.

5. The Archduke Joseph, $21.4 million

In November 2012, this 76.02-carat diamond set a new record for the most expensive colorless diamond per carat ever sold at auction. Originally discovered in the Golconda mines in India, the cushion-shaped diamond was named for Austria’s Archduke Joseph August, the great-grandson of a Roman emperor and a French king. The anonymous buyer at Christie’s Geneva in 2012 reportedly plans to donate the diamond to a museum.

6. Great Star of Africa

At 530.4 carats, the Great Star of Africa is the largest polished white diamond in the world – and was cut from the 3,106 carat Cullinan, the largest diamond crystal ever found. Discovered in 1905 in the Premier mine, near Pretoria, South Africa, the Cullinan was examined for six months before being cut into nine major and 96 smaller brilliant cut stones. The Great Star of Africa was presented to King Edward VII on his birthday and was set in the head of the royal sceptre, part of the crown jewels – and can still be seen today in the Tower of London.

7. The Orlov

Now residing in the diamond treasury of the Kremlin in Moscow, the Orlov reportedly had its origins in India – where it served as an eye in the statue of the Hindu god Vishnu, before being stolen in the 1700s by a deserter from the French army. He fled to Madras and the diamond passed from merchant to merchant before appearing in Amsterdam, where the Russian Count Grigory Orlov paid 400,000 florins for it and presented it as a gift to the Empress Catherine the Great. Now set in the imperial sceptre it is remarkable for its original Indian rose-style cut, as well as for its faint bluish-green tinge, and weighs around 190 carats.

The Allnatt's origins are unknown prior to Major Allnatt's purchasing of the diamond in the early 1950s. After purchasing the diamond, he commissioned Cartier to make a setting for it. The final setting was a platinum flower with five petals, a stem and two leaves, all set with diamonds. After being sold to the SIBA Corporation, the diamond was re-cut to its current weight and the intensity was upgraded as a result.

The rare color grading for a diamond of this size was done by the GIA. The full report is even more impressive - 101.29 carat Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond with VS2 clarity. The high clarity grading is exceptionally rare when it comes to such oversized diamonds.

The Allnatt diamond was named after its first known and recorded owner - Alfred Ernest Allnatt, an English businessman and philanthropist. Even though the source of the diamond is unknown, different experts tend to attribute it the De Beers Premier Mine in South Africa. This is simply because the diamond carries some of the same characteristics of other diamonds from that area.

The Allnatt was bought by Alfred Ernest Allnatt in 1950 and was brought to Cartier for setting. It was mounted into a beautiful pin made of platinum in the shape of a flower. The flower had five petals, a stem and two leafs where everything but the Allnatt Diamond was set with white diamonds (see image below).

The Allnatt was presented in the Smithsonian museum as a part of the famous sublime diamond exhibition splendour of diamonds, along side the Millennium Star, Heart of Eternity, Moussaieff Red and Steinmetz Pink. The last time this diamond was sold was at a Christie's Auction back in May 1996 and it was bought by SIBA corporation for the amount of over $3,000,000.

The Allnatt diamond is a 101.29-carat, cushion-cut, fancy vivid yellow diamond with a VS-2 clarity, as certified by the Gemological Institute of America. Fancy vivid is the highest color grading that can be given to colored diamonds in the GIA color grading scale.

Being a fancy vivid yellow diamond, the Allnatt is without any doubt a Type Ib diamond, in which the intense yellow color is produced by nitrogen atoms scattered as single atoms in the crystal structure. These nitrogen atoms absorb visible light in the blue region of the spectrum, causing the complementary color of blue, which is yellow, to manifest itself. However the occurrence of these diamonds are only about 0.1 % of all naturally occurring diamonds, and are therefore quite scarce.

Type Ia diamonds on the other hand, have an occurrence of almost 98 % in nature, and a great majority of natural diamonds belong to this group. These diamonds vary from near colorless to pale and medium yellow colors. Nitrogen atoms in these diamonds are found as groups of 2, 3 or 4 atoms. If found as groups of 2 or 4 atoms they do not affect the color of diamonds. However if nitrogen occurs as groups of 3 atoms, known as N3 centers, it can impart a pale to medium yellow color to the diamonds, depending on the concentration of the N3 centers. Usually groups of 2, 3, and 4 atoms occur together in the same crystal, and such diamonds are known as Type IaAB diamonds.

This 76.45-carat diamond gets its name from from Archduke Joseph August (1872-1962), a previous owner of the gem and a prince of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty. The Archduke was a descendant of the Emperor Leopold II, son of Empress Maria Theresa who owned the famous Florentine Diamond, one of the most notable and unique diamonds in history and an heirloom of the Hapsburgs for many years. But whereas the Florentine was unusually large for an Indian diamond and light yellow in color, the Archduke Joseph is a colorless diamond; it possesses the most notable characteristic of the best Golconda diamonds, namely a high internal clarity. Thus its D-color certification. It is cut in a rectangular cushion shape, perhaps a style of cutting that is not entirely unfitting with its Indian origin. It has horizontally divided pavilion main facets.

The Archduke Joseph - better known as Joseph of Alcsut - was the oldest son of Duke Joseph Carl Ludwig and Princess Clothilde of Saxe-Coburg. He married Augusta in 1893, daughter of Prince Leopold of Bavaria, Duchess of Gisela, and a granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph. He began his eminent military career in 1902 when he enlisted in the Hungarian territorial reserve, simultaneously studying law at Budapest University. On the death of Emperor Franz Joseph he became commander of the Hungarian front line forces during World War I, reconquering the eastern part of Siebenburgen and initiated the negotiations for a cease-fire. In October of 1918, he was named Regent of Hungary by the Emperor Charles I, but his efforts for forming a government were overturned by the onset of the October 31st Revolution, whereupon he retired to his Alcsut estate.

The dazzling Archduke Joseph diamond sold for just under $21.5million last night, setting a new world auction record price per carat for a colorless diamond. It went for well above the expected $15million and more than triple the price paid for it at a sale almost two decades ago. The four-hundred-year-old gem, that came from the ancient Golconda mines in India, fits snugly into the palm of an adult's hand and weighs a staggering 76.02 carats.

The Archduke Joseph diamond gets its name from its first known owner Archduke Joseph August Viktor Klemens Maria (1872-1962) of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, a prince of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty, who distinguished himself in the battle field as a commander of the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, on the side of the Central Powers, and was promoted as Field Marshal at the end of the war. Archduke Joseph was a great-grandson of Emperor Leopold II, son of Empress Maria Theresa.

The diamond gets its name from the town of origin of the finder/owner of the diamond, Mr. W.W. Johnson of Amarillo, Texas, who discovered the 16.37-carat rough diamond in 1975, at the world's one and only diamond mine open to the public, the Arkansas Crater of Diamonds State Park, where one could search for diamonds after paying a nominal fee and keep what he finds.

The Amarillo Starlight diamond is a 7.54-carat, marquise-cut, white diamond of unknown color and clarity grades.

If the white diamond is an absolutely colorless diamond also known as a D-color diamond, it is a Type IIa, which are said to be chemically pure and structurally perfect diamonds. Factors that can cause color in diamonds are absent in these Type IIa diamonds. Hence their absolutely colorless nature. Two important factors that can cause color in diamonds are presence of trace quantities of impurities in the crystal and plastic distortion of the crystal.

If on the other hand the diamond is near colorless or has at least a tinge of yellow, the diamond becomes a Type Ia diamond, in which the color is caused by trace quantities of nitrogen atoms being present in the crystal. Nitrogen atoms present as aggregates of odd numbers can impart a pale to medium yellow color to diamonds. Such diamonds are known as Type Ia. If nitrogen atoms are scattered as single atoms in the crystal they impart an intense yellow color to the diamonds such as canary yellow. These diamonds are known as Type Ib.

The Amarillo Star coarse diamond, a 16.37-carat white stone was revealed in 1975 by W. W. Johnson of Amarillo, Texas, whereas he was on trip with his family, at the Crater of Diamonds State park, in Arkansas.

f the diamond is an extremely colorless diamond also known as a D-color diamond, it is a Type IIa, which are supposed to be chemically clean and structurally wonderful diamonds. Factors that can grounds color in diamonds are lacking in these Type IIa diamonds. Hence they are entirely colorless in nature. Two essential features that can cause shade in diamonds are presence of trace measures of dirtiness in the crystal and plastic twist of the crystal.

The 16.37-carat white rough diamond grown to be the largest diamond ever discovered by a park visitor subsequent to the Crater's organization as a state park in 1972. The diamond still grasps this record up to date. In trusting with the park's policy that "finders are keepers" Mr. Johnson turned out to be the owner of the diamond. Consequently he got the diamond cut into a marquise-shape evaluating 7.54 carats, with the predictable loss of 8.83 carats. Such victims are regular in the dispensation of diamonds, in the efforts to reach the best quality diamonds, with the highest fire and brilliance.

Mr. Johnson was a janitor who had taken an early retirement due to a heart condition. He first visited Crater of Diamonds State Park with his wife in August 1975.

Johnson and his wife had been surface searching at the park for about an hour when they decided to sit under a shade tree to cool off. While resting, Johnson saw the sun glinting off something about 30 feet away and walked over to see what it was. According to him, the tip of the stone was uncovered, but most of it remained buried. Johnson dug the stone out with his finger and took it to the visitor center for identification. After a few tests, his stone was confirmed to be a diamond. According to Jim Cannon, who was park superintendent at the time, Johnson didn’t realize the significance of what he had found until he was told it was larger than the 15-carat Star of Arkansas Diamond which had been found here in 1956!

Russian geologists shocked when miners exploited rock containing diamonds 30,000.

A mining company has recently discovered a rock contains about 30,000 microscopic diamonds at diamond mines Udachnaya (Russia).

Through research, geology experts noticed, this stone diamond concentration levels are higher than normal lot.

Because the diamonds in this stone is too small to be processed into gems so geologists have decided to donate the stone to the Russian Academy of Sciences to study.

Geologist Larry Taylor of the University of Tennessee, said: "It is interesting that I have 30,000 tiny diamonds, octagons perfect and not a large diamond".

Geologist Taylor joined fellow X-ray scanning and analyzing rocks collected. Results showed 1mm diamond crystals, octahedral shape - like two pyramids stuck together. The rest of the crystalline rocks larger speckled red, green, olivine and pyroxene.

Test data shows that diamond crystallized from fluid leaks in the crust, likely formed peridotite rocks.

Diamond concentrations are found in rock Udachnaya few million times larger than an average diamond ore. The average concentration is only about 1-6 per ton carat diamond (weighing about 0.2 g 1carat).

Sami Mikhail from Carnegie Institute of Science in the US, said: "The combination of minerals that will reveal to us about certain mysteries of these rocks."

According to geologists, discovered in these rocks will provide clues to important research on the origin of the gemstones as well as the geological history of Earth.

Scientists extremely surprised by the strange nature of this Pandanus palm species.

Scientists in the US have discovered a species trait extremely interesting - it is just sprout, grow on lands that contain diamonds.

Specifically, species of palm tree or Pandanus Pandan (Pandanus candelabrum scientific name) whose appearance resembles palm species, possesses a thorny shell sizes with diverse, high 1 - 20met.

This plant appears a lot in the area of tropical climate and some of the islands in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific. Featuring extremely interesting and Pandanus palms as they sprout from the ground contains diamond.

During a search of kimberlite rocks - a type of volcanic rock sometimes containing diamonds, geologist Stephen E.Haggerty of Florida International University have accidentally discovered this feature.

He noticed that, on the surface where he dug kimberlite always indicate the presence of a particular species. This has helped him to quickly find other places to continue mining kimberlite.

At the bottom of this particular tree is a combination of fertile soil contains many minerals. Besides the most notable factor is the diamond, ground to the Pandanus palms can survive longer contains ruins from the volcano eruption, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus - nutrients "fine" without tree species and fully absorbed.

The discovery features Pandanus palm species will be an important step to promote the development of the diamond mining industry, especially in the western regions of the country and South Africa.

However, this work would encounter relatively more difficult, because the dust Pandanus palms always been "acres" in the rainforest with many species of giant trees.

Not only developing diamond mining industry, the findings also help geologists studied the temperature and pressure of the Earth's crust ago 150 million years ago - phase occurred a rift between Africa and South America to create the Atlantic.