At first glance, platinum, silver and white gold look virtually interchangeable. However, when it comes to shopping for an engagement ring or wedding band, the differences between these similar-looking precious metals become quite pronounced, both in terms of quality and of price. We break down the pros and cons between buying platinum, silver and white gold to help you pick the right metal for your wedding day.

COLOR AND CARE
Silver
PRO: Sterling silver has a grayish-white color and has an elegant sheen to it. The cool undertones of silver complement gemstones and help them pop.
CON: Silver is incredibly susceptible to tarnishing. Moisture, humidity and air pollutants can mix with the other metals in sterling silver and quickly discolor your ring. In turn, silver jewelry requires regular cleanings and separate storage.

Platinum
PRO: Platinum is naturally a brilliant, greyish-white color and can be quickly polished to restore its luster as needed.
CON: Over time, platinum will develop a patina that will dull your ring’s luster. However, this can also be classified as a pro as some wearers prefer a somewhat faded platinum engagement ring, as it makes the diamond look bigger.

White Gold
PRO: White gold is a composite of yellow gold and the alloy metal nickel. Then it is plated with rhodium, an expensive precious metal. This gives white gold that mirrored look and finish.
CON: The rhodium plating will inevitably fade, leaving your formerly white gold ring with a yellowish tinge. You will need to have your ring regularly re-plated to preserve its original brilliant white luster.

WEIGHT AND HARDNESS
Silver
PRO: Silver is a whiteish-gray precious metal that, at its purest, is the softest material out of these three, making it prone to nicks and scratches. In fact, pure silver is so soft that it usually has to be mixed with other metals to make it more durable. Hence the existence of sterling silver, which is a mix of pure silver and copper. Sterling silver is slightly harder than gold, therefore, it is less susceptible to the scratches that are unavoidable with a piece of jewelry that endures daily use.
CON: The hardness of sterling silver is both its pro and its con. The flip-side being that it is difficult for jewelers to engrave silver with fine details. So, if you love the look of a very detailed carved band, you will be disappointed in the final look of a silver ring.

Platinum
PRO: Platinum is an incredibly durable metal. It does not scratch easily so it does not require as much regular maintenance as silver or white gold. Also, diamonds or gemstones are incredibly secure when set in platinum.
CON: The density of platinum makes it a heavier metal. While some wearers may enjoy the weighty feeling of platinum on their finger, others may find it cumbersome.

White Gold
PRO: Like yellow gold, white gold is a very soft metal. This makes white gold the perfect option if you want a ring with lots of filigree, an incredibly ornate pattern of arabesques made with incredibly fine white gold wire.
CON: White gold is incredibly vulnerable to scratches. In turn, you run the risk of damaging your ring with frequent wear.

COST
Silver
PRO: Silver by far wins as the most budget-friendly precious metal of this bunch, as it is the most common metal of the three.
CON: However, silver is not classified as an investment metal the way gold is. Although you are probably not planning on selling your engagement ring anytime soon, if you ever wanted to reset or upgrade your ring for, say, an anniversary, it may be trickier to find an interested buyer.

Platinum
PRO: Taking a long-term view, a platinum ring will need minimal servicing—and those little trips to the jewelers for cleaning and re-plating silver and white gold really do add up.
CON: Platinum is much more expensive than silver and white gold. Also, because platinum is a heavy precious metal and sold by weight, it inflates the overall cost.

White Gold
PRO: As an alloy metal, white gold comes in varying degrees of purity; the higher the percentage of pure gold, the more expensive your ring will be. That said, you can effectively scale the white gold’s purity to suit your budget.
CON: White gold is, overall, still pricier than silver. Moreover, you will need to pay up to have your jewelry regularly polished and re-plated in rhodium to maintain it.

According to Chinese culture, if your soul feels like it needs a little healing, you should reach for some jade. This brilliant gemstone holds a lot of cultural weight: said to bring its wearer happiness, health and good fortune, jade also used to be used as a symbol of class and wealth, for good reason. Real jade can be pricey, especially if it’s jadeite, the rarer, more valuable form of jade. Jadeite is one of the two mineral species that can be classified as jade: the other is nephrite, a much more common and less valuable mineral.

The irony about jade acting as an important facet of Chinese tradition is that the highest-quality jade isn’t even found in China. While nephrite can be found in mineral deposits in various parts of the world, including both American coasts, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Western Europe, jadeite can only be mined in 10 places: California; Myanmar; New Zealand; Guatemala; Itoigawa, Japan; Kazakhstan; Russia; British Columbia, Canada; Italy and Turkestan. Jade that comes from outside these places is probably nephrite. Naturally, because of discrepancies in origins, jadeite and nephrite also have very different chemical makeups, which change how the minerals react to processing and handling.

When it comes to shopping for jade, especially if you are in the market for something finer and more durable, the differences between these two minerals are crucial and can affect the price and quality of the product. The following are some tips and tricks that can help you discern between jadeite and nephrite.

Color

Jadeite’s rarity is not the only factor behind its high price point: this mineral also occurs in rich and varied hues of different levels of clarity. Unlike nephrite, which typically only grows within a short spectrum of different gemstone shades of darker green, white, and sometimes black, jadeite can be found in pure emerald greens, lavender, red, orange, yellow, blue, brown, white, black, and gray. Of course, the most prized color of jadeite is a specific shade of green: “imperial jade” is the moniker given to the rare kind of jadeite that is semi-translucent and gives off a vibrant emerald green color. Other valuable types of green jadeite include “apple green jade”, “kingfisher jade”, and “moss-in-snow jade”. Because of its chemical makeup, jadeite can also take higher gloss polish, which can bring out the transparency of the stone, making it more valuable.

Hardness

While jadeite and nephrite are very close on the Mohs scale of hardness, jadeite is still harder, ringing in between 6.5 and 7. Nephrite comes in between 6 to 6.5 on the scale, which is still relatively hard, but at this level, the mineral can still be susceptible to scratches from non-abrasive material. You can perform a scratch test on your jade to differentiate between jadeite and nephrite, but be very careful as this might damage the product. Find a part of the stone that won’t be handled or seen much, like the bottom of a carving. Stay away from weathering surfaces—areas that will often be touched or be exposed to corrosives like sunlight or water—as these will be softer and easier to damage. Using the blunt edge of scissors or a small knife, gently press a small line into the stone. If the scratch makes a small white line, gently wipe it off, since it might just be residue from the metal of the tool you’re using. If the indentation is still there after you wipe it off, you probably have nephrite, or worse, fake jade.

Further Inspection

If these tests don’t yield decisive results, don’t despair. It’s actually incredibly difficult to ascertain whether a product is made of pure jadeite. Even professional appraisers and jewelers can only be about 80% sure that a jade product is purely one mineral or the other. As such, to be completely certain, you should send your stone to a laboratory. They will send the product back to you with a jade certification detailing exactly which minerals out of which it is composed. Making sure that the lab you send your product to is legitimate is definitely top priority in this case, so we recommend going through accredited gemological foundations to find a trustworthy place. The International Gemological Institution and the Gemological Institution of America, for example, both offer reliable gem analysis services.

Obsessed with jade? Check out this story about rare jade and diamond bracelets!

Silver jewelry is highly susceptible to tarnishing. This is how to clean silver to keep tarnish from forming and how to polish your dull silver jewelry to return its luster and shine.

How Tarnish Forms
So why does tarnish form on your silver jewelry in the first place?

Silver jewelry is made of silver and a second alloy metal to improve the pure silver’s durability. Sterling silver, for instance, is 92.5% pure silver and the remaining 7.5% is copper and other metals. The other alloy metals are what react to the moisture in the air and cause your silver jewelry to tarnish.

In turn, your silver jewelry will inevitably tarnish. In fact, it will tarnish faster in humid regions or cities with lots of air pollution.

How to Prevent Silver Jewelry from Tarnishing
While tarnished silver jewelry is unavoidable, there are precautionary measures that can slow the tarnishing process.

1. Wipe down your silver jewelry at every night.
Use a soft cloth to gently clean your silver jewelry after a day of wear. This will remove any residual oils or moisture and keep build-up from forming.

2. Store your silver jewelry in a jewelry box with anti-tarnish strips.
Whether you’re simply taking off your silver necklace for the night or stowing it away for a few weeks, pack it away in a cloth-lined jewelry box. Slip in a few anti-tarnish strips too; these inexpensive strips absorb the air pollutants that cause your jewelry to tarnish. In a pinch, you can also use the silica gel packets that come in shoeboxes or handbags in lieu of anti-tarnish strips.

3. Remove silver jewelry before showering.
The humidity of your steamy shower will accelerate the tarnishing process. So, leave your jewelry outside of the bathroom. Similarly, take off your jewelry before jumping in the pool or basking in a sauna.

How to Clean Tarnished Silver Jewelry
Tarnish can usually be wiped away from silver jewelry with a specially-designed silver polishing cloth. A few words of caution before you begin, though: if your jewelry contains any gemstones, double-check with your jeweler on how to safely clean your unique item. Hard stones like diamonds can endure most cleaning products, but softer stones, like emeralds and turquoise, are easily damaged and should never be dipped in cleaning solution.

1. Rinse your silver jewelry with warm water.
2. Pat your piece dry with a lint-free cloth.
3. Rub your jewelry with a silver-cleaning cloth. Work in up-and-down or side-to-side motions (not in circles) until all of the tarnish is wiped away.
4. If stubborn tarnish persists, use a silver-cleaning fluid; we recommend Connoisseurs Jewelry Cleaner for Sterling Silver Jewelry. Dip your jewelry into the solution, rinse with warm water and pat it dry with a lint-free cloth.

For more tips on how to care for precious metal jewelry, read our post on the topic here.

Grand Complications the watch masterpieces in the world of haute horology, a testament to the unparalleled skill of a master watchmaker. We explain what makes a watch a Grand Complication and take a look at three of history’s most important and complicated watches.

What is a Grand Complication?
Before we can delve into the world of grand complications, we should quickly review what exactly is a watch complication. The most basic definition for a complication is: any mechanical watch function beyond simply telling the time. Watch complications include alarms, chronographs (or a stopwatch) and day or date displays.

While we may quickly dismiss these complications as commonplace on modern watches, they were significant breakthroughs in watchmaking when first introduced. These core complications are proof positive to the watchmaker’s skill, craftsmanship and ingenuity to layer in additional mechanical functions in such a small watch case.

Grand Complications, in turn, are considered the most complex and highest achievement of haute horology. While watchmakers, executives and collectors debate over what really qualifies a grand complication, the generally accepted definition of a Grand Complication is a portable timepiece that includes a minute repeater, moon phases, perpetual calendar, split-seconds chronograph and a grand and petite sonnerie which is a quiet gong that strikes every quarter of an hour.

The High-Stakes World of Grand Complications
Grand Complications are a badge of honor for watchmakers and brands, the finest of fine watchmaking. These premier timepieces can take more than 10 years to develop. They also test the skill of a horology master who needs to expertly layer together all these different components– and to make each function work flawlessly. Grand Complication watches can include upwards of 1,300 individual parts that need to neatly fit inside an incredibly limited space.

The art of Grand Complications effectively is a game of one-ups-manship as brands compete to hold the title of the World’s Most Complicated Watch. And as brands introduce ever more complex and elaborate Grand Complications, they raise the bar on what a Grand Complication is—hence the disputed definition of a Grand Complication.

3 Historical Grand Complications
3. The Most Expensive Grand Complication Sold at Auction: The Henry Graves Jr. Patek Philippe Supercomplication One of the most storied and renowned watches by Patek Philippe is the Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication. This pocket watch was commissioned by the wealthy banker Henry Graves Jr. in 1925. It required seven years to design and build the watch’s 24 complications which include a moon phase, a perpetual calendar and sunrise and sunset indicators. Most notably, the Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication includes a celestial map of the sky above New York City, as seen from Graves’s posh 5th Avenue apartment.

Although its title for the world’s most complicated was usurped by another Patek Philippe design in 1989, it remains the most complicated watch designed without the aid of computers. It was most recently sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2014 for a record-breaking $24 million USD.

2. World’s Most Complicated Pocket Watch: Vacheron Constantin 57260The current title for the Most Complicated Watch in the World goes to the Vacheron Constantin 57260. The watch debuted in 2015. It took Vacheron Constantin watchmakers eight years to develop. This hefty two-pound watch includes 57 complications made up of 2,826 individual components. (For comparison, the former title holder was the Patek Philippe Calibre 89 which boasted 33 complications in 1989.) It was built entirely by hand by three watchmakers.

This Vacheron Constantin Grand Complication was sold to a private collector for an undisclosed sum but experts estimate it had a $10 million USD price tag.

1. Oldest Known Patek Philippe Grand Complication: Stephen S. Palmer Patek Philippe Grand Complication No. 97912 This recently discovered Grand Complication by Patek Philippe was first manufactured in 1898 and predates what was previously considered the first Patek Philippe Grand Complication by 12 years. However, because this Grand Complication was a part of a private collection, it only became known to the public in 2013 when it made its debut on the Christie’s auction block. The Palmer Patek Philippe Grand Complication sold for $2.25 million USD.

This pocket watch includes the core Grand Complication criteria: moon phases, a split-seconds chronograph, minute repeating perpetual calendar, and a grand and petit sonnerie. It is also made of a beautiful and unconventional 18K pink gold.

It was originally purchased in 1900 by Stephen S. Palmer, the president of the New Jersey Zinc Company and an avid watch collector. Palmer traveled to Patek Phillipe’s historic headquarters in Geneva to finalize the purchase of the Grand Complication. It is believed the Grand Complication rarely left the security of a bank vault as it was auctioned in near-perfect condition.

White gold jewelry gets that enviable shine from a rhodium plating. We unpack rhodium plating, from how it grew into industry standard, its limitations as a precious metal and how thick rhodium plating on your jewelry should be.

White Gold’s Rise in Popularity
White gold only became popular in the last few decades. During World War II, wartime efforts needed all available platinum and palladium to manufacture military equipment. In turn, jewelers were looking for an alternate precious metal as a viable substitute.

Enter white gold.

Years before this, jewelers combined yellow gold with the alloying (and “bleaching”) metal nickel to create white gold. However, with the strict rationing of platinum in the 1940s, white gold’s popularity took off as a platinum look alike. Once World War II ended and platinum became available again, white gold remained a popular jewelry making material, largely because it’s roughly four times less expensive than platinum.

The Commercialization of Rhodium Plating
Since then, jewelers have vastly improved the everyday wearability of white gold by adding a “top coat” of rhodium plating. Before rhodium plating became widespread, white gold made with nickel would quickly darken when exposed to chlorine and certain cleaning products. Rhodium plating eliminated that rapid discoloration.

Rhodium plating gives white gold that desired high-shine and white-hot mirror effect. Although rhodium is a member of the platinum family, it is primarily used to improve the jewelry’s aesthetic—not necessarily to protect the underlying white gold from everyday bumps and scrapes. Rhodium will fade away with frequent wear so you will need to have your most-worn white gold jewelry pieces re-plated roughly every six months.

Understanding Rhodium Plating Thickness
White gold jewelry also needs to be regularly re-plated because the thickness of rhodium plating is incredibly thin, ranging from 0.5 – 2.5 microns. (For comparison, a strand from a spider’s silk web is 3 microns.) As durable as rhodium is as a metal, its thin coating on your white gold jewelry means it is easily scratched and worn.

Here are the expert recommended thickness coatings, pending the item being rhodium plated:

Lead the fashion pack with one of these five must-own women’s watches by designer favorites Chanel and Gucci and the models by Patek Philippe, Movado and Hublot that stole the show at Basel 2017…

5. Chanel Première Camélia Skelton The J12 may be the most-recognized Chanel watch but trendsetters should skip it in favor of the Chanel Première Camélia Skelton. This sophisticated watch whittles down the in-house Caliber 2 movement and places it in the shape of the iconic Chanel camellia flower. This elegant women’s watch is Chanel’s horological stake in the ground, demonstrating Chanel’s keen sense of style and exceptional watchmaking skills. The Chanel Première Camélia Skelton may prove to be a collector’s item as the breakthrough watch for Chanel’s horology reputation.

4. Gucci G-Timeless 
Gucci watches have very recently undergone a creative makeover, thanks in large part to Gucci’s new creative director Alessandro Michele. Moving away from the iconic Gucci horsebit, Gucci G-Timeless’s motifs now include big cats, cartoon planets and ghosts and bold Gucci red and green. As Michele builds the new Gucci look, we predict Gucci watches will experience a popularity boom. So grab yours early…

3. Movado Edge 
The Movado Edge beautifully plays into the ongoing minimalist trend without being a hum-drum design. Despite its seemingly stark look, the Movado Edge is wonderfully rich with depth. Its silver-toned aluminum dial is actually concave save for its Movado signature tonal dot. The hour and minute markers stream out to give it even more texture. And the looped leather strap adds even more dimension and a rugged bent to this sleek watch.

2. Hublot Classic Fusion 
The Hublot Classic Fusion is already a favorite with Vogue Paris editors—the de facto world tastemakers. The clean lines are amplified by the rich blue dial and bracelet made with Hublot’s signature polished and satin-finished 18K King Gold. The rich colors contrast beautifully and heighten the watch’s luxe appeal. If this watch caught the attention of the most elite class of trendsetters, the Hublot Classic Fusion is sure to start cropping up on the wrists of other stylish women soon.

1. Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5062/450 
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its signature Aquanaut watch, Patek Philippe debuted the diamond-covered Aquanaut 5062/450 earlier this year. The sporty octagonal watch gets a glamorous over-haul thanks to a mix of snow-set and invisible-set baguette and round diamonds, arranged in a mesmerizing geometric pattern. Patek Philippe is already the forerunner of fine watchmaking and this radiant update to one of their signature models pushes it to the top of our must-own list.

The Hermès Collier de Chien (CDC) Cuff is one of the luxury brand’s marquee motifs. And the cuff’s name, Collier de Chien, translates to “dog collar.” As strange as that moniker may seem, it is actually a tribute to the cuff’s original design.

Throughout the 1920s, it was common for chic Parisian women to travel about town with their dogs in tow—if not a whole pack of leashed dogs. And given the brand’s renowned and history for fashioning horse bridles and leather goods, Hermès excelled at designing covetable dog leashes and collars.

In 1923, the house of Hermès was commissioned to design a collar for a client’s bulldog. The original dog collar set the tone for later iterations of the motif; the design included the center O ring for the leash and is signature pyramid studs.

The custom-made Hermès dog collar created a sensation among other fashionable dog owners who requested a similar collar for their own pets. Soon after, couturière Marie Gerber requested the iconic collar be refashioned into a belt for women. In turn, the Hermes Collier de Chien belt was released in 1927.

From there, the iconic Collier de Chien motif was adapted into the Hermès Collier de Chien cuff we know today. First released in 1940, the Hermès CDC Cuff prominently features the O ring and pyramid studs. The O ring can freely spin on its own—although it looks as if it’s made of solid metal. This hefty bracelet is issued in a myriad of materials and metal-types including palladium, Permabrass, calfskin leather and exotic skins. The immediately recognizable studs and the bracelet’s generous width give the Hermes CDC Cuff an unutterably cool downtown and punk rocker vibe.

To learn more about how to spot a fake Hermès Collier de Chien Cuff, read our post here.

Featured image by Cocouture.org

A look at the ancient mythology, record-breaking finds and the surprising backstories of some of the world’s most famous diamonds…

1. Ancient Romans believed diamonds were poisonous and could ward off insanity.
Ancient Romans prized diamonds for their incredibly rarity and believed this rarity imbued diamonds with mystical powers. Romans would wear raw diamonds to protect themselves from succumbing to insanity and ward off ghosts and nightmares. It was also thought that diamonds were an antidote to any poison—but if diamonds were swallowed themselves, they became the world’s deadliest poison.

2. It is rumored that Catherine de Medici poisoned her enemies with diamond dust.
Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) was married to King Henry II of France. She was considered one of the most powerful women in 16th century Europe but was known for her ruthless politics aimed at keeping her family line on the throne. She was also looked at with great suspicion as her subjects believed she was affiliated with the occult.

Catherine’s hunger for power, coupled with her alleged familiarity with the dark arts, led people to believe she poisoned any political opponents with diamond dust. The rumors went so far as to claim the queen would test out her toxic potion of diamond dust on the sick and poor.

3. The first diamond engagement ring was recorded in 1477.
Throughout the 14th century, men typically gave their fiancé a simple ring engraved with both their names. But, in 1477, Austrian Archduke Maximilian set a new status symbol precedent for the European nobility when he proposed to Mary of Burgundy with a diamond engagement ring. The ring was set with thin, flat diamonds in the shape of an M.

4. The world’s largest diamond weighed 3,106 carats.
Later dubbed the “Cullinan Diamond,” this record-setting diamond was found at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa in 1905.

The diamond was cut by Joseph Asscher who examined the stone for six months before his first cut. When he did cut it, the diamond shattered precisely as Asscher wanted. However, Asscher himself fainted from the nervous energy and incredible pressure for handling the invaluable stone.

The Cullinan Diamond was ultimately divided up into nine large stones and 100 small stones. The largest of these, the “Star of Africa I,” weighs 530 carats and is classified as the largest-cut, fine quality colorless diamond in the world. The diamonds are worth an estimated $400 million USD.

5. The universe’s largest diamond is 10 billion trillion trillion carats.
In 2004, astronomers discovered a white dwarf star 50 light years away from Earth. This star is actually made of crystallized carbon, so it is effectively the universe’s largest diamond. It weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds or 10 billion trillion trillion carats. The white dwarf was appropriately named Lucy after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

6. The most expensive diamond in the world is a 59.60-carat pink diamond that sold for $71.2 million USD.
Although there are diamonds that are valued for more (like the Hope Diamond worth an estimated $350 million USD), these stones are considered invaluable and are unlikely to ever be put up for auction.

Therefore, the Pink Star diamond earns the title of the world’s most expensive diamond after being sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $71.2 million USD in April 2017. The 59.60-carat oval mix-cut stone is considered the largest flawless fancy vivid pink diamond. The Pink Star was won by Hong Kong billionaire Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun. Cheng Kar-shun bought the diamond to honor his late father and renamed the Pink Star the CTF Pink Star, after his family business Chow Tai Fook.

7. The “Uncle Sam” is the largest diamond ever found in the United States.
In 1924, W.O. Bassum found a 40.23 carat diamond in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Dubbed the “Uncle Sam” diamond, it was worth nearly $1 million in today’s dollars. It remains the largest diamond ever found in the United States.

The site of this remarkable find sits atop a volcanic pipe, a sort of tube formed by ancient volcanic explosions, making it a hotbed for diamonds. Today, visitors to the Crater of Diamonds State Park can mine their own diamonds; it is the world’s only diamond site open to the public. And, if you get lucky and dig up the next “Uncle Sam” diamond, the park’s policy reads, “You find it. You keep it. No matter how valuable it is.” And since the park opened in 1906, over 75,000 diamonds have been discovered there.

8. The Hope Diamond is thought to be cursed.
The history of the Hope Diamond is fraught with death, theft, and deception.

The Hope Diamond was first acquired by a French diamond dealer named Jean Baptiste Tavernier in the 1600s in India. Tavernier went on to sell the diamond to King Louis XIV of France. The king then passed the diamond down the royal line where it became the position of the ill-fated and later beheaded Louis XVI. Following the French Revolution, the then-named French Blue diamond was put on display with the other seized crown jewels. But the stones were stolen in September 1792.

The stone mysteriously turned up 20 years later in 1812 in a small London diamond shop. It was then sold to the British King George IV. After the king’s death, it was sold to diamond collector Henry Philip Hope and earned its name The Hope Diamond. The Hope was an influential family at the time but later generations would largely squander the family’s wealth. Lord Francis Hope (Hope’s great-grandnephew) sold the Hope Diamond in 1901 to cover his crushing debt caused by his habitual horse betting and poor business decisions.

The New York jeweler Joseph Frankel’s Sons & Company purchased the diamond after putting up much of their business to raise the capital to afford the illustrious diamond. But, before they could make a return on their investment, the 1907 Banker’s Panic struck the US and any potential buyer vanished. The Hope Diamond then came into the possession of French jeweler Pierre Cartier.

It is believed Cartier exaggerated the mystery behind the Hope Diamond to entice American socialite Evelyn Walsh McLean to purchase the diamond. In a cruel twist of irony, Walsh McLean (who greatly admired the Hope Diamond and would parade it about at parties) experienced a series of personal tragedies: the death of her 10 year-old son in an automobile accident; her husband went insane; and her family’s business The Washington Post filed for bankruptcy.

Following this series of incredibly unfortunate events, all linked to the infamous Hope Diamond, it’s little wonder why some still believe the diamond is cursed.

9. To find one carat of diamonds, miners must sift through 250 tons of ore.
Only 20% of all the diamonds mined are of gem quality. The average size of a mined diamond is a mere .10 carats. In order to find a one carat stone, miners must dig up 200-250 tons of earth.

10. The world’s oldest diamond is 4.25 billion years old.
In 2007, scientists outside of Perth, Western Australia found the world’s oldest diamond trapped inside zircon crystals. While this may not have necessarily rocked the jewelry industry—the suspended diamonds are minuscule—it was a breakthrough for the scientists who are studying these diamonds to learn more about how the Earth formed. Already these grain-sized diamonds suggest that the Earth was cooler than scientists originally predicted.