Diamond mines of Arkansas

Strawn-Wagner Diamond

The Strawn-Wagner Diamond is regarded as the world’s only perfect diamond. It is notable not only for its perfection, but for the fact that it wasn’t actually mined.

 

 

The diamond was discovered in 1990 at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas – the world’s only publicly owned diamond prospecting site – by Shirley Strawn and named after the finder and her great-great-grandfather, Lee Wagner.

 

Strawn, as per the park’s policy, kept the diamond – which originally weighed 3.03 carats – for a number of years. In 1997, Arkansas’ first certified gemologist advised her to send the rough diamond to be cut.
Strawn sent her diamond to New York, where Belgian-trained diamond cutter Lazare Kaplan of Lazare Kaplan International took the stone and cut it down by more than half, leaving a 1.09-carat round brilliant diamond with a color grade of D and a clarity grade of Internally Flawless.

 

AGS Laboratory Director Peter Yantzer described it as a “one-in-a-billion diamond,” and the stone was given the highest possible AGS grade: 0/0/0. To date, the Strawn-Wagner Diamond remains the most perfect stone certified by the AGS.

 

The state of Arkansas later purchased the Strawn-Wagner Diamond and had it mounted in a platinum and 24 karat gold setting in the shape of apple blossoms – the state flower. It is now on display at the Crater of Diamonds State Park gallery.

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