Diamond Of The Week

Over the last couple of years, I have been progressively going through my stuff and donating some of the more presentable items to local charity shops. It is tempting to take a ruthless approach to disposing of the junk accumulated over the years, but it can come at some cost, as this story highlights.

A woman in her seventies was having a clear out at her home in Northumberland. Amongst the costume jewellery she regarded as now being surplus to requirements, there was a piece with an enormous stone the size of a pound coin which she thought was made of cubic zirconia, a synthetic diamond lookalike. She was persuaded by a friend to get her bag of jewellery looked at by a professional valuer.

It was a good job that she did as tests on the stone revealed that it was not only a real diamond, but a 34-carat one. It is now being auctioned at the end of the month and is anticipated to fetch a cool £2 million.

That would have been the giveaway of the century.