Capítulo 31: Pink Diamond
Dressed in a silk nightgown, Margaret leaned against the bed's headboard, reading a popular novel. Margaret was not a literary girl, so the book she read was not "profound" prose or poetry but an ordinary popular novel.
Because she was so absorbed in her reading, Margaret didn't notice that Josh had spent a little more time than usual in the study today until he opened the door and startled her.
But as soon as she looked up, she saw Josh carefully closing and locking the door before sneaking up to the window.
"What's going on, dear?" Margaret couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Nothing! I just want to give you a gift!" Josh pretended to be mysterious.
"What gift? Let me guess... jewelry??" Margaret was a little surprised to hear Josh's words, but then she said excitedly.
"Oh, dear, you guessed it too accurately!" Josh was surprised this time. How did this woman guess it so accurately?
"Is it really jewelry? That's fantastic! Show me!" Margaret said eagerly and happily.
But Josh could tell that Margaret was genuinely happy but wasn't necessarily expecting it. As a wealthy woman and the daughter of a major jeweler, Margaret had seen and handled countless luxury jewelry, including those of collector's grade, except for the large diamond ring that had already been put away. Josh had also seen the other jewelry she owned, which was all of the highest quality.
So expecting a regular jewelry piece would excite this woman was unrealistic.
That's why Josh and Margaret had known each other for so long, and their relationship had become so close. Still, Josh had never given Margaret a formal gift because he didn't have anything good enough to give her.
It was Margaret who had been giving gifts to Josh all along.
From cars to houses, from clothing to accessories.
She even wanted to give her entire wealth and property to Josh.
But there was no way around it. The initial strength of the two sides was naturally unequal.
So Margaret's expectation was only for this to be Josh's first gift to her, not for the gift to be very valuable.
Thinking about this, Josh felt that he owed this woman a lot more and couldn't help but feel a little more pity for her.
But then again, Margaret was probably wrong today.
Because the jewelry that Josh was about to give her was precious beyond her imagination, no, it was not just precious but absolutely unparalleled in the world.
So Josh didn't overly arouse Margaret's curiosity because he was afraid that if he did, it might stimulate her. Hence, he just took the gift out of his own pocket.
And when Margaret saw the gift that Josh took out, she was stunned, but then she widened her eyes and tightly covered her mouth with both hands. Her eyes were full of dazzling light as the crystal shone in the slightly dim light of the table lamp.
Josh's gift was normal but also abnormal.
It was normal because it was a diamond. Although she had to sell her own family's jewelry business because she wasn't good at managing it, Margaret was still very knowledgeable about jewelry, so she could tell at a glance that the crystal in front of her was a real diamond, and a very precious pink diamond at that.
But a general pink diamond wouldn't have caused Margaret to lose her composure.
What really made her lose her composure was the abnormality of this gift.
That was the size of the diamond.
Have you ever seen a diamond the size of a chicken egg? And it's a pink diamond!
Before today, the largest diamond in the world that Margaret knew of was the Cullinan Diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1905 and contributed to the British royal family. The famous Rolls-Royce SUV of the same name borrowed the name of this diamond.
How big was it?
It was about the size of an adult woman's palm, 10 cm long, 6.5 cm wide, 5 cm high, weighing 3,106 carats, and transparent with a light blue tone.
But this diamond was cut into nine large and 96 small ones in 1908. The largest piece was cut into a 530.2-carat diamond.
And what about the one in front of Margaret's eyes? Although it's not as big, it can also be considered a masterpiece, far surpassing the second-largest Lesedi La Rona in terms of purity and estimated weight of over 1,000 carats.
And it's a pink diamond! A pink diamond! A pink diamond!
Important things need to be said three times.
And don't say that diamonds are a scam.
In the 21st century, diamonds have become a scam for two reasons: massive reserves and the emergence of synthetic diamonds.
However, the former refers to ordinary diamonds, which are small, fragmented diamonds.
According to research in later generations, the reserves of diamonds on Earth amount to tens of trillions of tons.
Just looking at this number, diamonds really shouldn't be so valuable.
However, the fact is that most of these diamonds are buried deep underground and are difficult to mine.
According to the identified reserves in 1943, which are easy to mine, there are only a few hundred million tons.
However, even this number of diamonds is not enough to account for the current value of diamonds on the market.
But there is still a grade difference among these few hundred million tons of diamonds, and only 50% of them can become gemstone-grade.
Among this 50%, after being classified according to the 4C standards of weight, clarity, color, and cut, less than 1% can be considered fine diamonds.
These diamonds are relatively in line with the value that the market gives them.
The remaining 99% of diamonds are not valuable, but this doesn't prevent jewelers from packaging and selling them at the price of fine diamonds.
From this perspective, a female star from China has a point when she says that diamonds below one carat cannot be considered worthless. Still, their value as collectibles is not high.
Therefore, the emergence of artificial diamonds really turns diamonds into a scam.
As long as the production technology reaches a certain level, artificial diamonds can come in any color and size, and their purity is also top-notch.
But when did artificial diamonds appear? It wasn't until the 1970s...
And at first, they could only produce non-gemstone-grade diamonds.
It wasn't until around 2000 that the technology could produce truly gemstone-grade diamonds.
So the diamond in Josh's hand is a real treasure in this era.
"Is this really for me? Where did you get it? Does anyone else know?" Faced with such a treasure, Margaret managed to suppress her emotions and not cry out, which was already quite calm.
After holding it in for so long, Margaret's emotions finally eased a bit when tears started to flow down her face. Then she asked a series of questions in a very low voice.
She wasn't stupid and understood what such a treasure meant.
Its value was actually not a big deal.
The key was that once the news of this thing got out, Margaret was really afraid that she and Josh would end up dead on the street.
This kind of treasure is enough to drive the whole world crazy. Without the size of the empire that never falls before the First World War, it will definitely not be able to keep it!
Why did the British royal family choose to cut the Cullinan diamond into several smaller ones back then? Didn't you know that the bigger it is, the more valuable it is? In fact, they were also afraid of being coveted...
So when Josh gave Margaret such a thing, she couldn't figure out whether he truly loved her or was trying to harm her.
Fortunately, this kind of worry is actually not difficult to solve.
Just like what the British royal family did in the past, cut the gemstone, and there shouldn't be any problems.
The reason why Josh gave Margaret such a diamond was actually to play this trick... Margaret's father was a jeweler, and she had really studied jewelry cutting for a while.
Of course, Margaret from before had only cut some small diamonds and had never seen such a big thing.
As for certificates and such... don't be ridiculous. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA), considered the world's most authoritative institution for diamonds, was established in 1931. Still, it wasn't until the 1950s that it became a large institution with enough credibility. Even the 4C standard was not established until that time.
At this point in 1943, there was no such thing as an appraisal certificate.
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