If this doesn’t inspire you to hunt for a bargain then nothing will: one woman bought a diamond ring for $12, thinking it was just a ‘crystal’, but later found out it was worth much more.
Luck only takes you so far, you also need to be on the lookout for markers of quality.
The England-based woman bought the ring back in the 1980s at a car boot sale.
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She spent $12 on her shiny new ring and wore it for 20 years, assuming it was simply costume jewelry.
She wore the ring everywhere, but one day, when visiting a jeweler, they told her that the ring might be an actual diamond.
She didn’t believe the expert at first but acted on his advice and took the ring to Sotheby’s auction house in London.
Sotheby’s had a closer look at the rock and discovered that it was a 26-carat diamond originating from Golconda, India.
Turns out it’s possible to find an exquisite diamond at a car boot sale as well as in space.
This ring has quite the history, too.
“This is an extremely rare find. We’re used to people coming in with pieces from their personal collections but this was exceptional,” Jessica Wyndham, who previously worked at Sotheby’s, said.
Tobias Kormind, co-founder at 77 Diamonds, explained, “I’m convinced the ring was once owned by royalty or a person of great wealth because it originates from the 1800s – before the discovery of modern diamond mines and a time when very few diamonds were available.”
The woman later auctioned the diamond off and happily sold it for $847,667 to another owner.
This auction, in particular, made several headlines in 2017 because of the rarity of the diamond.
It’s always interesting to see people discovering hidden treasure, like this man who discovered $7.5 million in a storage unit he got for $500.
Since then, that diamond ring has passed through the hands – and fingers – of many owners.
The Instagram account for David Harry Jewels recently posted a video showing an interview with the current owner of the Golconda diamond ring.
Today, the ring is valued at $1.1 million.
The current owner said nobody has a clue how the diamond originally ended up at the car boot sale.
