Anschar Diamonds Blog

While the Hope Diamond is the most popular exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, tucked away at the National Postal Museum just a mile away is the post-stamped plain brown mailing wrapper that represents an aspect of the gem's history that's been largely untold and that few people have ever seen.



New York-based luxury jeweler Harry Winston owned the Hope Diamond from 1948 to 1957, and over that time, the gem traveled throughout America as part of Winston's Court of Jewels exhibition. In 1958, Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian and used his surefire way to get it there.



It may seem surprising, but Winston delivered the priceless gem — not by armored vehicle — but by the US Postal Service.

“It’s the safest way to mail gems,” Winston told The Evening Star (Washington, DC) at the time. “I’ve sent gems all over the world that way.”



The registered First-Class postage cost him just $2.44, but he also paid $142.85 for $1 million worth of insurance. The total payment of $145.29 is equivalent to $1,582 today.

This past Friday, we got a chance to see the actual postal wrapper, up close and personal, at the National Postal Museum, which is located across the street from Union Station, just north of the Capitol building.

If you're planning to visit this off-the-path Smithsonian (the Postal Museum attracts just 200,000 visitors a year vs. 4.4 million for the National Museum of Natural History), be sure to ask a Smithsonian staffer to point out where the Harry Winston wrapper is located.



Just inside the gallery, you will see a seven-foot-high case that looks like a travel steamer trunk standing on its end. Built into the side of the trunk are six numbered drawers. If you slide out drawer number 3, you will be a glass pane away from a mailing wrapper plastered with 16 $9.00 postage stamps, one $1.29 stamp, and a "Fragile" marking.



The face of the wrapper includes a Harry Winston Inc. shipping label, and a simple typewritten address (Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.) Hand-written, as if it were an afterthought, is the addressee, Dr. Leonard Carmichael.



In Washington, on November 10, 1958, the package was delivered to the Natural History Museum by local letter carrier James G. Todd. Reporters were on hand to witness Todd plucking the valuable package from his mail satchel and presenting it to Smithsonian's Secretary Carmichael and Smithsonian Curator George Switzer.

In a piece that aired in December 2020, Dan Piazza, Curator of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, told Harry Smith of NBC's Today show, “The National History Museum can have the diamond. I want the box it came in. I kind of think we got the better end of the deal.”

Credits: Hope Diamond mail wrapper and display shots by Bruce Carter/The Jeweler Blog.

The Hope Diamond has been seen by more than 200 million visitors during the gemstone's 60-plus years at the Smithsonian, placing it just behind Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa at the Louvre as the most visited museum object in the world.



This past Friday, a family member and I arrived at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, just as it was opening, and dashed two steps at a time to the second floor where we beat the crowds to the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals.

On many of our previous trips, attempts to get an unencumbered photo op with the most famous diamond in the world were thwarted by the sheer number of people in the exhibit hall, but on this day we were the first visitors to enter the Harry Winston Gallery and found ourselves in an uncommonly empty space — just us and the 45.52-carat deep-blue diamond.



The Hope Diamond is set in a Cartier-designed pendant surrounded by 16 white diamonds, both pear-shapes and cushion cuts. The complimentary necklace chain contains 45 white diamonds. The glass case is viewable from four sides and the column-shaped display on which the jewelry is affixed rotates every few seconds, one-quarter turn at a time.

The Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian in 1958 by luxury jeweler Harry Winston. In yesterday’s column, we recounted how and why Winston decided to use the US Postal Service to ship the famous gem from New York to DC.

According to the Smithsonian, Winston envisioned the institution assembling a gem collection to rival the royal treasuries of Europe — “Crown Jewels” that would belong to the American public.

“Other countries have their Crown Jewels,” Winston reportedly said. “We don’t have a Queen and King, but we should have our Crown Jewels, and what better place than here in the nation’s capital at the Smithsonian Institution.”

The Hope Diamond immediately became the museum's premier attraction and has been on continuous display, except for five instances…

In 1962, it was exhibited for a month at the Louvre in Paris as part of an exhibit titled "Ten Centuries of French Jewelry."

In 1965, the Hope Diamond traveled to South Africa, where it was exhibited at the Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg.

In 1984, Harry Winston Inc. exhibited the stone at its New York headquarters as part of the firm's 50th anniversary celebration.

In 1996, the Hope Diamond returned to Harry Winston Inc. for a cleaning and some minor restoration work.

In March of 2020, the Smithsonian was forced to close the Hope Diamond exhibit due to COVID-19 restrictions. It was finally reopened 461 days later on June 18, 2021, to great fanfare.

Today, the Hope Diamond is estimated to be worth $325 million, making it the single most valuable item at the Smithsonian.

Researchers believe the Hope Diamond was originally mined in India in 1642. It was crudely finished and weighed 115 carats when it was purchased in 1666 by French merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier, at which time it became known as the Tavernier Diamond.

French King Louis XIV bought the Tavernier Diamond in February 1669 and ordered it to be recut. The result was a 69-carat heart-shaped stone that would be known as the French Blue.

In 1792, the French Blue was stolen from the royal treasury in Paris. Its whereabouts remained unknown until a very similar large blue diamond appeared in 1839 in the collection of Henry Philip Hope, a London banker and gem collector. Gem historians believe the French Blue had been, once again, recut. The 45.52-carat gem became known as the Hope Diamond.

After going through numerous owners, it was sold in 1911 by French jeweler Pierre Cartier to Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean. In 1949, McLean’s heirs sold the stone to Winston, who exhibited it throughout the US for a number of years. In 1958, he famously gifted it to the Smithsonian.

Credits: Hope Diamond and display photos by The Jeweler Blog.

In early December, five-time Grammy-award-winning and multi-platinum artist Drake confirmed that his "The Anita Max Wynn Tour" would be coming to Australia and New Zealand in February 2025. And to commemorate the tour, the Toronto native commissioned Jason of Beverly Hills to create a massive pendant necklace fabricated from 3 kilos (6.6 lbs) of gold and more than 250 carats of colorful, flawless diamonds.



The pendant features the likeness of Drake's cartoon alter ego, Anita Max Wynn, an adorable girl sporting a blonde bob haircut, rosy cheeks and oversized black-rimmed spectacles. Anita's face dangles from a link chain bedazzled with white, blue, green and pink gemstones.

Anita Max Wynn is a clever pun on the gambling phrase "I need a max win" and was introduced into the Drake lexicon in December 2023 during a Kick live stream.

"Ladies with gentle hands," said Drake, who is famously a high-stakes gambler, "this is my alter ego, Anita Max Wynn."

This is not the first time Drake has collaborated with celebrity jewelry designer Jason Arasheben. Back in 2019, the artist commissioned an 18-karat white gold iPhone X case adorned from edge to edge with blue and white diamonds weighing a total of 80 carats. The $400,000 case was punctuated by a white gold, diamond-eyed symbol of Drake’s record label, the OVO owl.

Arasheben revealed the case on his Instagram page under the caption, “Because we can’t do basic!"

More recently, the jeweler was back on Instagram with a video showing the details of the Anita Max Wynn pendant. His caption stated, "Carrying the weight of greatness. Go big or go home! Thank you @champagnepapi for always putting your trust in us."



Arasheben also revealed the pendant's surprise feature: A hidden door in the back that opens to reveal miniature skyline of Toronto, Drake's home town. The door itself features a map of Australia and New Zealand, along with the names of the tour cities, venues and dates.

The 38-year-old's tour Down Under will begin on February 9 in Melbourne, Australia, and will end on March 1 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Credits: Screen captures via Instagram / jasonofbeverlyhills.

While gemstone inclusions are generally viewed in a negative light because they represent imperfections, in certain cases the presence of "telltale" inclusions will have the opposite effect. Sometimes they turn out to be "perfect imperfections" — the type John Legend sang about in his 2013 hit, "All of Me" — and significantly increase a stone's value.



This is the case with the vivid green demantoid garnet, the rarest and most valuable variety of January’s birthstone.

First discovered in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1851, the green gem was a favorite of designer Carl Fabergé, who incorporated demantoid into the famous jeweled eggs and other fanciful jewelry he created for the Russian Imperial family.

Demantoid garnet is currently mined in Namibia, Iran, Pakistan, Italy, Madagascar and Canada, but the Russian demantoid garnet continues to set the standard by which all the others are judged.



The good news is that jewelry connoisseurs can easily tell if their demantoid garnet was sourced in Russia due to distinctive byssolite “horsetail” inclusions that seem to spray out from the center of the stone.

A beautiful, well-formed inclusion can increase the value of the gemstone considerably, noted the International Colored Gemstone Association.

The gem in the first image, above, was sourced in Namibia, while the included gem in the second image originated in Russia's Ural Mountains.

Demantoid is derived from the Dutch word for diamond, “demant.” The stone owes its impressive diamond-like brilliance to two main factors: A high refractive index and a high dispersion (its ability to separate light into the spectrum of colors). Demantoid, in fact, boasts the highest dispersion rating of all gemstones, including diamond.

Fine-quality demantoid garnets are rarely found in sizes larger than 2 carats. The Namibian 3-carat gem, above, is part of the Smithsonian Gem and Mineral Collection and was purchased with funds from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation in 2014.

Ironically, George F. Kunz, who was Tiffany and Co.’s vice president of gemology from 1879 until his death in 1932, was a big fan of demantoid garnets and reportedly purchased all the rough material he could get his hands on.

African-origin demantoid tends to be yellowish-green, olive green or brownish, due to higher concentrations of iron. Russian demantoid, on the other hand, owes its color to chromium and tends to be vivid green.

Other garnet varieties used for jewelry include pyrope, almandine, andradite, grossularite, hessonite, rhodolite, tsavorite, spessartine and uvarovite.

Credits: Photo of Namibian demantoid garnet by Greg Polley/Smithsonian. Photo of Russian demantoid garnet with byssolite inclusions by Dr Anatoly, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you romantic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, The Isley Brothers sing about the symbolism of fine jewelry in the group’s 1992 release, “Brazilian Wedding Song (Setembro).”



Written by Brazilian composers Ivan Lins and Gilson Peranzzetta, “Brazilian Wedding Song (Setembro)” became a frequent request for wedding day playlists after a sweet rendition by The Isley Brothers appeared on their Tracks of Life album.

The song is essentially a groom’s wedding vow — using jewelry references to describe his solemn pledge of love and devotion.

Lead vocalist Ron Isley sings, “I pledge all my love to you always / Don’t you know this ring / This ring is a symbol of my love / Grant us blessings from above oh, oh / Who cherish all the magic of our days.”

In the next verse, gold chains symbolize the couple’s eternal bond… “Oh Lord, oh Lord, here I stand / Golden chains around our hearts / Vow to death we’ll never part.”

Often cited as the band that has enjoyed one of the “longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music,” The Isley Brothers became the first group to score a Top 50 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 in six consecutive decades.

Originally from Cincinnati, the group was established in 1954 as a gospel trio featuring brothers O’Kelly, Rudolph and Ron Isley. Soon they landed a spot on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, where they won the competition and took home the grand prize — a watch. With their new-found fame, they began touring all over the eastern US, performing in a variety of churches.

The brothers moved to the New York City area in the late 1950s. In 1959, the brothers celebrated their first big hit, “Shout,” a song that would become a cultural phenomenon nearly two decades later when it was performed by Otis Day and the Knights in the 1978 fraternity house romp, National Lampoon’s Animal House.

The Isley Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and in 2010, Ron Isley received a “Legend Award” at the Soul Train Music Awards. The Isley Brothers will be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2025.

Ron Isley, 83, and his brother, Ernie, 72, are still performing as The Isley Brothers. Their 60th Anniversary Tour will take them to Las Vegas, Ledyard, CT; Englewood, NJ; North Charleston, SC; Southaven, MS; Los Angeles and Indianapolis over the next six months.

Please check out the audio track of The Isley Brothers performing “Brazilian Wedding Song (Setembro).” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Brazilian Wedding Song (Setembro)”
Written by Ivan Guimaraes Lins and Gilson Peranzzetta. Performed by The Isley Brothers.

Today is the day to say I do
Yes, I promise to be true

I pledge all my love to you always
Don’t you know this ring
This ring is a symbol of my love
Grant us blessings from above oh, oh
Who cherish all the magic of our days

Oh Lord, oh Lord, here I stand
Golden chains around our hearts
Vow to death we’ll never part
From this day as one we’ll start our lives

Oh Lord, here I stand
With my heart out in my hand
Rich or poor, I am your man
I’m your lover and friend for life
Ooh

So much love, so much love, girl
So much love, girl, la, la, la, la
Today, today, today is the day to say I do
Yes, I promise to be true

I pledge all my love to you always
Don’t you know this ring
This ring is a symbol of my love
Grant us blessings from above oh, oh
Who cherish all the magic of our days

And I can hear them when they play
Our Brazilian wedding song



Credit: Photo by T-Neck Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

When fashion icon Zendaya walked the 2025 Golden Globes red carpet sporting a brand new engagement ring from boyfriend Tom Holland, style watchers were quick to point out the unique east-west orientation of her 5-carat elongated cushion-cut diamond.



It's a style that's been around for 100 years, but could also become the next big thing, thanks to the viral media attention the ring generated on celebrity websites and Zendaya's "It" girl status in Hollywood. (She also claims 180 million followers on Instagram.)

East-west settings became popular during the Art Deco period of the 1920s and 1930s, when jewelry designers stepped out of the box and started experimenting with bold, geometric designs that broke away from traditional jewelry styles.



Today, a diamond rotated 90 degrees from the common vertical orientation reflects an edgy, yet sophisticated, elegance.

Eagle-eyed jewelry pundits identified Zendaya's ring as a design by British jeweler Jessica McCormack, who has taken pride in revitalizing the styles and setting techniques of yesteryear.



The jeweler's Instagram page features a ring very similar to the one seen during Zendaya's walk on the red carpet. In a post from 24 weeks ago, the jeweler described the ring as having a "Georgian back button diamond setting."

During the Georgian period (1714-1837), jewelers developed a setting style where the back of the diamond was completely enclosed in precious metal, creating a button-like appearance.

The jeweler told theadventurine.com that the setting increases the refraction of the light, producing a magical depth to the stone.

"This style is very comfortable to wear," she told the website. "The diamond sits low to the finger and close to the skin, and the smooth gold finish enclosing the diamond keeps the stone as sparkly as possible."

Elongated diamond shapes, such as oval, emerald, marquise, radiant and some cushions, tend to elongate the appearance of the finger when set north to south. Brides with shorter fingers would tend to take advantage of this strategy. On the other hand, brides with longer fingers can easily wear a diamond in an east-west orientation.

What's more, according to Town & Country, an east-west diamond symbolizes "two equal partners moving forward on the same path."

With Zendaya leading the way, it's a sure bet that more brides-to-be will be taking a closer look at east-west engagements rings in 2025 and beyond.

Credits: Zendaya image by Toglenn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com. Ring images via Instagram / jessica_mccormack.

A former Wheel of Fortune contestant who believed she was being invited back on the show as part of its 50th-anniversary celebration solved the "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" puzzle and was stunned when her now-fiancé emerged from backstage to pop the question.



Rhea Mathew had last appeared on the top-rated game show in October of 2023. Her appearance this past Thursday was actually the culmination of an elaborate ruse coordinated by Mathew's boyfriend, Robin Kuriakose, and the show's producers.

"From the moment I saw a future together with Rhea, I envisioned this proposal," Kuriakose told Good Morning America. "I saw the letters on the board, and knew this is how it had to happen. Truthfully, there were no plans B or C! It took about three months to plan it alongside the amazing producers of the show."

With only five letter revealed during a toss-up round, Mathew buzzed in and confidently shouted out the solution to the "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" puzzle. At the same time, Kuriakose, who had been waiting in the wings, stepped onto the set.



Clearly shocked by his appearance, Mathew slowly put two and two together and approached her boyfriend with her hands covering her mouth.

Kuriakose pulled an oval-cut diamond ring from a ring box, went down on one knee and proposed with the phrase, "Rhea Susan Mathew, will you marry me?"



Mathew nodded "yes" and the couple shared a kiss.

The studio audience let out a cheer and the hosts were clearly moved by the heartfelt moment.

In a shared post on instagram, the couple wrote, "@everyone !!! We have been nearly BURSTING with excitement to share the details of our proposal!! Tune in to @wheeloffortune TONIGHT on ABC to catch @rkuriakose put my jaw on the floor doing the sweetest, most elaborate thing anyone has ever done for me." She punctuated the caption with a Holding Back Tears emoji, Loudly Crying Face emoji, red heart emoji and diamond ring emoji.



"Like the rest of America, I saw the shock on her face — with her jaw on the floor and her eyes wide open," said Kuriakose in a post-show interview with Good Morning America. "All I wanted to do at that moment was embrace her to bring her back to reality, and show her the magic she deserves."

The couple is planning an October wedding in Long Island, NY.

Credits: Wheel of Fortune set images via YouTube / WheelofFortune. Selfie and engagement pics via Instagram / rheamathew_.

As Los Angeles residents try to salvage what remains of their ravaged homes after devastating wildfires swept through their communities this past week, you might be wondering about the condition of the diamond jewelry they may find in the ashes.



How a diamond ring survives a blazing inferno has a lot to do with the temperature of the fire and whether or not the jewelry was stored in a fire safe.

House fires typically reach 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, but can get as high as 2,000 degrees in extreme conditions, such as the ones generated by the ferocious wind-whipped wildfires seen in California.

An average fire safe can protect its jewelry contents up to a temperature of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. And even without the safe, a gold and diamond ring may survive because the melting point of the precious metal is about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and the ignition temperature of a diamond is about 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit.

While diamond sits alone atop the Mohs scale as the hardest naturally occurring material known to man, it is made of carbon. And like other carbon materials, such as graphite or coal, diamond can burn.

Under regular conditions, the ignition occurs at about 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit. In a lab setting, when surrounded by pure oxygen, diamonds will start combusting at 1320 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a 12-year-old YouTube video that has been viewed 719,000 times, British scientist and author Peter Wothers enlisted the help of Nobel prize-winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto to demonstrate what it takes to get a diamond to burn.

Wothers added a bit of drama and comic relief by using Kroto’s wife’s engagement diamond for the experiment. The viewer can see Kroto getting increasingly more uncomfortable as it becomes very clear that his wife’s diamond — under just the right conditions — has ignited.

In his preliminary experiment, Wothers easily set ablaze a bit of graphite using a torch in an environment of pure oxygen. Then he upped the ante by doing the exact same experiment using the Kroto engagement diamond.

Surprisingly, that lit up, too. The diamond burned as a golden ember without producing any flames. At that point, Kroto half-jokingly commented that he hoped Wothers could afford to pay for a replacement diamond.

As you might have figured out by now, Wothers had cleverly swapped the Krotos’ engagement diamond with a much lower quality specimen before the experiment began. (Kroto passed away in 2016 at the age of 76.)

On its website, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) confirmed that house fires and jewelers' torches can reach a temperature sufficient for a diamond to burn. It even provided an photo of what a scorched diamond looks like. Instead of being transparent, the diamond is marred by a white, cloudy surface (like frost on a window).

The GIA noted that a diamond with this type of blemish can be recut, reducing the diamond's size, but leaving no sign that it was ever damaged.

If you’re worried about how a diamond is protected when a ring setting needs to be retipped, for example, be assured that jewelers go to great lengths to make sure that the extreme heat of the torch does not affect the gemstone. Some jewelers use boric acid to protect the stone while others depend on the pinpoint accuracy of a laser welder to keep the diamond out of harm’s way.

Please check out Wothers' demonstration below...



Credit: AI-generated image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3.

A white gold wedding band pulled from the ashes symbolizes hope for a California firefighter who lost his home and possessions in a blaze that wiped out his Altadena neighborhood.



Chien Yu and his family were forced to flee when the wind-whipped fires rapidly descended on their home last week. He noticed an orange glow through the trees in his backyard and he knew it was time to go.

As soon as his wife and two young sons were secured, Yu reported to the firehouse to start a 16-hour shift to protect the property of his Altadena neighbors.



CNN's Erin Burnett met up with Yu on his first day back on the job and accompanied him on a tour of his own property, which had been reduced to rubble. The charred remains looked like a scene from a war zone.



Yu was emotional as he surveyed the devastation. He pointed to a concrete slab that used to be his front porch, and some tangled strings that were the only remains of the family's grand piano.

Yu told Burnett that his wife did manage to pack some stuff, but she and the kids are unrooted right now. The boys want to go back home and they want to go back to school, but both their home and school have been destroyed.

"I just wanted normalcy. So that's why I came back to work," Yu told Burnett. "But it's never going to be the same for the kids."

As a firefighter, Yu sees destruction everyday. But, Yu said this experience has been indescribable.

"I mean, you know, when we go to a house fire, you kind of detach, and you just sort of do what's best for the homeowner and you put their fire out and we kind of salvage what we can," he said. "We pull what we can... And hopefully some of their stuff makes it."

Then he took a breath and looked at his own property and said, "But this is just just gone."



A moment later, CNN cut to a shot of two other firefighters sifting through the ashes on Yu's property.

"What's that? What's that?" Burnett shouted as a firefighter pulled a small, round object from the rubble and handed it to Yu. "Oh, my God."



It was Yu's wedding ring.

"Chien, what's your wife going to say?" asked an excited Burnett.

"She didn't know [it was missing]," he said. "Now everybody knows where we found it."



CNN then cut to a scene of Yu's wife, Kim's, reaction upon seeing the dusty, but cherished, ring. She was overwhelmed with emotion as she hugged her husband.



CNN viewers sensed that the ring is now a symbol of the strength of their bond and commitment to rebuild. They hope to stay in Altadena, not far from where Yu grew up.

"Yeah, we want to be back," he said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the family's Go Fund Me page had accumulated $216,000 in donations from 2,700 individuals. That's 87% of the way to their target goal of $250,000.

You can visit their Go Fund Me page here…

See Burnett's five-minute report here…

Credits: Screen captures via cnn.com.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you popular songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Marina Diamandis, aka Marina and the Diamonds, stays true to her name in the 2012 international hit, “Primadonna.”



In this song about a self-absorbed diva who “wants the world,” the sassy Welsh recording artist tries to coax a marriage proposal and a giant-size sparkler from her beau.

She sings, “Would you do anything for me? / Buy a big diamond ring for me? / Would you get down on your knees for me? / Pop the pretty question right now baby.”

Diamandis created her stage name by incorporating her first name with the translation of her surname, which means “diamonds” in Greek. She explained that “the Diamonds” part of “Marina and the Diamonds” does not refer to her backing band, but to her fans.

In an interview with Elle Girl, Diamandis described how her ex-boyfriend thought it was funny that she was a mega drama queen always talking "global love" this and "global love" that!

"He called me a prima donna… so I thought I'd channel this well-known, but kind of undesirable character type, into a pop song."

She told The Sun that the prima donna beauty queen in this song is a magnification of "certain parts of me and of every woman."

“Primadonna” was the lead single from the 39-year-old artist’s second studio album, Electra Heart. MTV Buzzworthy critic Sam Lansky described “Primadonna” as “a monster song,” and fans across the globe agreed. The release was an international sensation, charting in 13 countries. Within the first few hours of its release in March of 2012, the song became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, now known as X.

Born in Brynmawr, Wales, Diamandis moved to London as a teenager to pursue a music career. In 2009, at the age of 24, she placed second in the BBC’s “Sound of 2010” competition. That success led to her debut studio album, The Family Jewels.

Diamandis has three high-profile events on her 2025 calendar. She will be appearing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA, on April 11 and 18; The Governors Ball in Queens, NY, on June 7; and Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN, on June 13.

Please check out the video of Diamandis performing the acoustic version of "Primadonna." The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Primadonna”
Written by Marina Diamandis, Julie Frost, Lukasz Gottwald and Henry Walter. Performed by Marina and the Diamonds.

Primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave

Primadonna girl,
Would you do anything for me?
Buy a big diamond ring for me?
Would you get down on your knees for me?
Pop the pretty question right now baby

Beauty queen of the silver screen
Living life like I’m in a dream
I know I’ve got a big ego
I really don’t know why it’s such a big deal, though

I’m sad to the core, core, core
Everything is a chore, chore, chore
When you give I want more, more, more
I wanna be adored

Cause I’m a primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave

Primadonna girl
Fill the void up with celluloid
Take a picture, I’m with the boys
Get what I want cause I asked for it
Not because I’m really that deserving of it

Living life like I’m in a play
In the limelight I want to stay
I know I’ve got a big ego
I really don’t know why it’s such a big deal, though

Going up, going down, down, down
Anything for the crown, crown, crown
When the lights go down, down, down
I spin around

Cause I’m a primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave

Primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall
You say that I’m kinda difficult
But it’s always someone else’s fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe
You can count on me to misbehave
Primadonna girl



Credit: Photo by Justin Higuchi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

On the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, there are three impressive specimens of a glassy yellowish gem so rare and so special that the ancient Egyptians used an identical material to adorn the breastplate of King Tutankhamun.



It's called Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) and it's found in only one location on Earth — the desolate Great Sand Sea north of the Gilf Kebir Plateau, just along the border of Libya and Egypt.

Geologists believe that LDG formed 29 million years ago when quartz-rich desert sand was liquified by a meteorite-generated heat burst of 3,600°F and then rapidly cooled.

The lack of an impact crater near the areas where LDG has been found lends credence to the theory that a meteorite may have exploded before touching down in the desert — but still generated enough heat to melt the sands. Scientists have compared LDG to trinitite, which is created when sand is exposed to the thermal radiation of a nuclear explosion.

When British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter entered the intact tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, he encountered thousands of luxury objects intended to accompany the boy king into the afterworld.

Among the items decorated with gold, silver and precious gemstones was a breastplate depicting the god Ra as a winged scarab carrying the sun and moon into the sky.

The scarab, dating back to 1323 BCE, was carved from a pale yellow stone that Carter originally identified as chalcedony, a translucent variety of quartz. A decade later, British geographer Patrick Clayton found samples of a similar glass-like material while exploring the Libyan Desert and classified it as Libyan Desert Glass.

King Tut's breastplate is currently on display in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, but will soon move to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza.

Credit: Photo by The Jeweler Blog.

Last spring, a Botswana diamond exploration company began employing artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of 380 gigabytes of survey data.



In less than nine months, Botswana Diamonds PLC — with an assist from a mineral prospectivity technology called Xplore — has already identified seven kimberlite anomalies and applied for three prospecting licenses. Kimberlite pipes are the rock formations where diamonds are typically found.

Xplore combines semantic technology with machine learning to rifle through a mountain of information. The exploration company’s database includes 32,000 drill hole logs, 228,000 soil sample results, 606 ground geophysical surveys and 375,000 km of airborne geophysical data.

The AI program essentially acts as an army of expert geologists to process and analyze the data, specifically looking for anomalies that point to the presence of kimberlite. The goal is to find drillable targets previously unseen.

"Kimberlites are difficult and very expensive to find," said Botswana Diamonds' Chairman, John Teeling. "Less than 8,000 have ever been discovered worldwide. To find seven potential kimberlites in a few months is an impressive accomplishment for the company."

If successful, Botswana Diamonds will be reaping huge rewards in a part of the world where high-quality diamonds are a fact of life.

The landlocked Republic of Botswana in southern Africa produces more high-quality diamonds than any other country in the world, except for Russia. Jwaneng, in southern Botswana, is regarded as the world’s richest diamond mine, and Orapa, in northeast Botswana, is the world’s largest diamond mine by area.

Botswana Diamonds is particularly excited about an AI-generated target just southwest of the Jwaneng Mine. The company noted in a press release that the anomaly signatures are ideal, and the anomaly suggests more than one potential kimberlite.

The Managing Director of Botswana Diamonds, James Campbell, sees AI as a monumental game changer when it comes to locating new diamond finds.

"There is a saying in the exploration industry that every time there is a significant change in technology, the exploration clock starts to tick again," Campbell said. "This happened with the re-discovery of AK6 (Karowe) by African Diamonds Plc and De Beers, where there was a step change in geophysical and drilling technology."

He continued, "I believe it is happening again with the maturing of artificial intelligence exploration solutions combined with massive data sets. I look forward to having 'boots on the ground' to take these exciting targets to the next stage."

As an added bonus for Botswana Diamonds and the Republic of Botswana, the AI-supported analysis will yield information on other valuable minerals, including gold, copper, lead and zinc.

Credit: AI-generated image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3.

On the same day Donald J. Trump was inaugurated in Washington, DC, as the 47th US president, an Indian lab-grown diamond company half a world away unveiled a 4.7-carat diamond uniquely faceted in his image.



A team of five artisans from Surat-based Greenlab Diamonds LLP worked for three months on the project, which included growing the diamond in its lab, planning the design, and then meticulously cutting and polishing the gem to look like the US president's profile.



"Our vision has always been to create diamonds that embody significant moments and milestones," noted Smit Patel, Director of Finance & Marketing at Greenlab Diamonds. "This 4.7-carat masterpiece is a symbol of our appreciation for leadership and our deep connection with the US market."

The company had previously created the 7.5-carat lab-grown diamond that was gifted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to former US First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in 2023 in honor of India's 75th Independence Day.

Greenlab Diamonds intends to gift the D-color, 4.7-carat Trump diamond to the newly seated president at a later date. The company reportedly produces more than 1.5 million carats of lab-grown diamonds each year using environmentally friendly methods that are ethical, accessible and sustainable.

On Greenlab Diamonds' X page, the company gave a shout-out to Harsh Sanghavi, Home Minister of Gujarat, India, for sharing an image of the Trump diamond and acknowledging the Surat-based company's achievement.

The company wrote, "[Sanghavi's] support underscores the growing impact of lab-grown diamonds and the innovative work happening in Surat. This achievement showcases the exceptional craftsmanship of Surat's artisans and the cutting-edge innovation driving the lab-grown diamond industry. "

This is not the first time Trump has been immortalized in a gemstone. Just before his first term, in November of 2016, London-based Vip Art Ltd. released a likeness of Trump carved into the surface of a dark blue sapphire.

The Trump sapphire was one of 90 such portraits that the company had rendered in 3D on rubies, sapphires, topazes and other natural and synthetic gems. Previous subjects had included former US President George H. W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, Mahatma Gandhi and Pope John Paul II.

Credits: Images by Greenlab Diamonds LLP. via X / sanghaviharsh (Harsh Sanghavi, Home Minister of Gujarat, India).

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you heartwarming songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country stars George Jones and Lacy J. Dalton sing about a very special piece of bridal jewelry in their 1984 duet, “Size Seven Round (Made of Gold).”



The song chronicles the love story of a couple, from their wedding day through their golden years. Even as they grow old together, her size-seven wedding band remains a shining symbol of their enduring relationship.

They sing, “Size seven, round and made of gold / This circle joins us heart and soul / And it won’t let our love grow cold / Size seven, round and made of gold.”

“Size Seven Round (Made of Gold)” appeared as the seventh track of George Jones’s 1984 album, Ladies’ Choice, which featured collaborations with nine famous female country artists. Twenty-one years later, the song returned on the 2005 reissue of the country legend’s LP, My Very Special Guests.

The song peaked at #19 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and #11 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart.

Born in a log cabin in the small town of Saratoga, TX, Jones got his first guitar at the age of nine. By 1955, at the age of 24, Jones had already served in the Marines, was married twice and recorded his first hit song, “Why Baby Why.” In 1969, he married Tammy Wynette. They were divorced six years later, although they continued to perform together after the breakup.

Jones told Billboard in 2006 that when it comes to his music, “It’s never been for the love of money. I thank God for it because it makes me a living. But I sing because I love it, not because of the dollar signs.”

Over a career that spanned seven decades, Jones is credited with charting 168 country songs, including 14 #1 hits. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. Jones passed away in 2013 at the age of 81.

Born Jill Lynne Byrem in Bloomsburg, PA, Lacy J. Dalton scored a number of hits songs in the 1980s, including “Takin’ It Easy,” “Crazy Blue Eyes” and “16th Avenue.” She’s still actively performing at the age of 78.

Please check out the audio track of the Jones/Dalton duet of “Size Seven Round (Made of Gold).” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Size Seven Round (Made of Gold)”
Written by Monroe Fields and Gary Lumpkin. Performed by George Jones and Lacy J. Dalton.

With all my love, my dreams and plans
I placed a ring upon your hand
To tell the endless love we found
Love’s golden band, size seven, round

Size seven, round and made of gold
This circle joins us heart and soul
And it won’t let our love grow cold
Size seven, round and made of gold

The years have passed, our ring is old
But time can’t tarnish pure love’s gold
Each day our love is young and new
There’s just no end to love that’s true.

Size seven, round and made of gold
This circle joins us heart and soul
And it won’t let our love grow cold
Size seven, round and made of gold.

Size seven, round and made of gold
This circle joins us heart and soul
And it won’t let our love grow cold
Size seven, round and made of gold.

Size seven, round and made of gold.



Credit: Photo by Epic Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

When Julius Caesar led the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC, Scottish pearls were on his mind.



Pearls were a symbol of wealth and power in Ancient Rome, and at that time the world's very finest natural freshwater pearls came from the riverbeds of Scotland.

Legend states that natural pearls held more value than diamonds. They were held in such high esteem that Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC) passed a law where only aristocrats could wear pearls within Rome's borders.

One of the key goals for his military expedition to Britain in 55 BC was to gain control of the freshwater pearls of Scotland and acquire significant wealth.



The Roman general had a long-standing appreciation of pearls. During his consulship in 59 BC, he famously spent 6 million sesterces on a large black pearl for his mistress, Servilia Caepionis. That price tag would be equivalent to about $3 million in today's dollars.

The "Servilia" pearl has been featured in several works of fiction, including The Field of Swords (2005), Cleopatra: Whispers from the Nile (2016), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

Trivia: Servilia was also the mother of Marcus Brutus, who later assassinated Caesar.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caesar honored the pearl’s connection to Venus (he considered the Roman goddess of love and beauty to be his ancestor) and even adopted pearl as his personal symbol.

In mythology, Venus was born from the sea, similar to how a pearl is formed within an oyster. She was often portrayed in artwork as emerging from an oyster shell.

The British Isles, particularly regions such as Scotland and Wales, continued to produce natural freshwater pearls all the way until the end of the 20th century, when over-harvesting, illegal fishing and the degradation of the habitat brought that industry to its knees.

According to the Financial Times, efforts are being made to reverse the trend.

"Freshwater pearl fishing has been banned in Scotland since 1998, as well as in the European Union, with several programs desperately trying to help populations [of mollusks] recover and ensure the species’ viability," noted the publication.

The largest natural freshwater pearl ever found in Scotland measured 10.5 mm in size and weighed 10.91 carats. Called the Abernethy Pearl, the specimen was harvested in 1967 and was sold at auction in August 2024 for £93,951 ($117,200).

Credits: AI-generated battle image by The Jeweler Blog using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3. Julius Caesar painting by Clara Grosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Freshwater pearls by James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Faced with evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton neared landfall on Florida's west coast, Melissa Martin quickly packed the family cars with their most important personal items.



She remembered taking off her gold-and-platinum wedding band and placing it in her pocket as she tended the fish in her aquarium, but when she checked for the ring later that day, it wasn't there.

When the threat had passed and Martin was allowed to return home, she searched tirelessly for her ring. She searched inside her home. She searched the front yard. She even searched the edge of her neighbors yard, to no avail.

Martin feared that the ring she wore every day for the past 25 years would be gone forever.

"It really means the world to me," she told Tampa's CBS affiliate, WTSP.

Three months had passed when Martin was scrolling her Facebook feed and noticed a post about Steve Thomas, a local metal-detector enthusiast with a stellar record for finding the unfindable.

She reached out and he was ready to help. Thomas' home base is in Dunedin, just a 15-minute drive to Seminole, where Martin lives.

He called Melissa to set up a search.

"And what I do when I come over, I have that individual recreate what they thought they were doing when they lost their ring," Thomas said.



Thomas gathered a few clues.

According to Thomas' Ring Finder blog, Martin had made a number of trips to place personal items in the cars before evacuating. She also walked next door to check with her neighbors to see if they might secure their trash cans. Martin also remembered kicking something in the driveway that she thought at the time was a rock.



Armed with this information, Thomas targeted the yard in front of the house. Within a half hour he scored a reading of 71-72 on his Minelab Equinox 900 detector.



He probed the area with his handheld pinpointer and spotted the reflective edges of Martin's two-tone ring, which was half-buried in the grass.

Thomas knocked on Martin's door. When she opened it, he announced, "I think I found what we were looking for!"

"We walked over and I pulled the ring out of the grass where it had laid for over three months," Thomas wrote. "I handed it to her and Melissa began crying tears of joy."

"Oh, I cried," she told WTSP. "We were hugging, crying — it was such a wonderful moment."

Thomas is a member of The Ring Finders, a loosely knit network of more than 1,000 members in 25 countries. Each member shares a love of metal detecting and reuniting people with their cherished keepsakes. The group’s website claims that members have recorded more than 14,583 successful recoveries since it was founded 16 years ago.

Thomas charges nothing for his services, but he told The Jeweler Blog that he accepts rewards, which go right into a college fund that he established for his two grandsons, ages 2 1/2 and 9 months.

"For me, the first 'rush' comes with the find and the second one comes when I give the ring back to its owner," Thomas wrote on his blog. "This never gets old!"

Credits: Photo of Martin's wedding ring in the grass and photo of Martin with her ring courtesy of Steve Thomas. Screen captures of Thomas working the front yard via YouTube / 10 Tampa Bay.

A solid gold helmet dating back to the 5th century BC and cherished as a national treasure by generations of Romanians was stolen in the predawn hours of Saturday morning when three hooded thieves used explosives to blow out a door at the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands.



The intruders took three minutes to abscond with the "Golden Helmet of Coțofenești," as well as three golden bracelets that dated back to the ancient Dacians. While the museum maintained overnight surveillance, no guards were on duty during the brazen 3:45 am attack.



All the stolen pieces had been borrowed from National History Museum of Romania for a seven-month exhibition called “Dacia – Empire of Gold and Silver.” The run had been scheduled to end on Sunday.

In a social media post, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the historical items have "incalculable value" and asked for a speedy recovery.

The Coțofenești helmet had been an international superstar, with previous museum appearances in Paris, Oxford, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Rotterdam, Florence and Lisbon. It was even featured on a gold coin series issued by the National Bank of Romania.

Romanian art historian Cornel Colceru told the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) that the helmet is particularly meaningful to Romanian national identity.

"Every child in Romania learns about this helmet in school. It’s the symbol of the Dacians and their treasures," he said.

The Dacian people lived in a region that currently includes parts of modern-day Romania and several nearby countries. Their kingdom lasted until 106 AD, when the Romans took control of the region.



Experts believe the helmet belonged to a Geto-Dacian king. Weighing 770 grams (about 1.7 pounds), the golden helmet is adorned with a blend of designs from ancient Eurasian and Greek cultures. It is comprised of three welded plates and is largely intact, except for the very top, which is missing.

According to romanian-insider.com, two children who were tending cattle noticed the partly buried helmet in 1928 after torrential rain eroded a hillside in the village of Coțofenești. The children played with the helmet, not knowing its value or origin. The kids' parents were also clueless and kept the helmet in their shed.

Smithsonianmag.com reported that a merchant from Ploiești, Romania, purchased the helmet from the family in 1929 and later donated it to the country's National Museum of Antiquities. It arrived at the National History Museum of Romania in the 1970s. In July of 2024, the helmet was lent to the Drents Museum for a seven-month exhibition.

“This is a dark day,” Harry Tupan, the general director of the Drents Museum, said in a statement. “We are intensely shocked by the events last night at the museum. In its 170-year existence, there has never been such a major incident. It also gives us enormous sadness towards our colleagues in Romania.”

Romanian authorities fear that the culprits will try to melt down the helmet for its gold value, about $75,000.

Meanwhile the Dutch police have asked for the assistance of Interpol, the international organization that specializes in transnational crime, and Dutch entrepreneur Alex van Breemen offered a reward of EUR 100,000 ($104,000) for any tip that could lead to the recovery of "Golden Helmet of Coțofenești."

Credit: Helmet of Coțofenești photo by Jerónimo Roure Pérez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Drents Museum photo by CrazyPhunk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Helmet detail photo by Laci3, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

For the ninth year in a row, Valentine's Day gift-givers will be spending more on jewelry gifts than any other category, according to a survey just released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The record-breaking $6.5 billion earmarked for jewelry is up a tick from last year's tally of $6.4 billion.



Valentine gift spending across all categories is expected to hit $27.5 billion. This is up nearly 7% from 2024 and also breaks the record set in 2020 ($27.4 billion). Jewelry will be accounting for nearly a quarter of all the dollars spent on Valentine gifts this year.



Other top-spending gift categories include an evening out ($5.4 billion), flowers ($2.9 billion), candy ($2.5 billion) and greeting cards ($1.4 billion). The average shopper plans to spend $188.81 for Valentine's Day gifts this year, up from $185.81 in 2024.

Exactly 56% of consumers plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, an upward trend from 53% in 2024 and 52% in 2023. A higher portion of men are celebrating the holiday this year, with 55% saying they plan to participate in Valentine’s Day, up from 51% in 2024.

Total spending on significant others is expected to reach a new record of $14.6 billion, up from last year’s record of $14.2 billion. Total spending on gifts for family members is projected to reach $4.3 billion, up from $4 billion in 2024 and in line with 2020’s record of $4.2 billion.

Precisely 32% of consumers also plan to purchase gifts for friends this Valentine’s Day, up from 28% last year and the highest in the survey’s history. Another 19% expect to purchase gifts for co-workers, up from 16% in 2024 and another record. On par with last year, 32% also plan to purchase gifts for their pets.

Fifty-six percent of survey respondents intend to give candy in 2025, followed by flowers (40%), greeting cards (40%), an evening out (35%) and jewelry (22%).

“Consumers plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day through a variety of ways to show appreciation and love for the many different people around them,” Prosper Insights & Analytics Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist said. “Purchasing gifts for those outside of significant others or family members continues to rise in popularity and reflects consumers’ growing interest in celebrating all the meaningful relationships in their lives.”

According to the NRF, among those not celebrating Valentine’s Day, 28% still plan to mark the occasion in some way. Many will treat themselves to something special, while others will plan a get-together or evening out with their single friends or family members.

As the leading authority and voice for the retail industry, NRF provides data on consumer behavior and spending for key periods, such as holidays throughout the year. The survey of 8,020 US adult consumers was conducted January 2-7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

Credits: Couple image by BigStockPhoto.com. Chart courtesy of the National Retail Federation.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. With legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan back in the limelight thanks to the Oscar buzz generated by A Complete Unknown, the biopic about his life, we present "Diamond Ring," a song he wrote in 1967 but never recorded.



“Diamond Ring” is one of more than 100 songs a then-26-year-old Dylan composed while recovering from a near-fatal motorcycle accident in his Big Pink home near Woodstock, NY. While 16 of those works went on to be included in Dylan’s highly regarded 1975 album, The Basement Tapes, many of the other songs, including “Diamond Ring,” remained forgotten — until 2014.



Taylor Goldsmith of the folk-rock supergroup The New Basement Tapes channels Dylan in his interpretation of “Diamond Ring,” a song about second chances.

In the tune, the song’s protagonist is heading back to St. Louis, where he’s hoping to reconnect with his old flame, Alice. This time, he’s ready to make the ultimate commitment.

He sings, “That old organ grinder’s gonna wind his box / And the knife sharpener’s gonna sing / When I get back to St. Louis again / I’m gonna buy that diamond ring / Diamond ring / Diamond ring / Shine like gold / Behold that diamond ring.”

With a nod from Dylan himself, producer T Bone Burnett assembled a supergroup of “musical archaeologists” — including Goldsmith, Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Jim James and Rhiannon Giddens — to re-imagine many of Dylan’s “lost” works.

The all-stars recorded dozens of Dylan songs during a two-week session at Capitol Records studio. The creative process saw members of the group swapping instrumental and vocal roles on the different album tracks, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

The group eventually released two editions of Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes in November of 2014. “Diamond Ring” appears as a bonus track in the deluxe 20-song version.

Goldsmith, who is best-known as a member of the Los Angeles-based folk rock band Dawes, had collaborated with Dylan before. His band toured with the music legend in 2013.

Just last week, A Complete Unknown was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet. Chalamet is one of only two actors to earn two Oscar nominations before his 30th birthday. The other was James Dean in 1957.

Please check out the video of Goldsmith and The New Basement Tapes all-stars performing “Diamond Ring.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Diamond Ring”
Written by Bob Dylan and Taylor Goldsmith. Performed by The New Basement Tapes.

If I ever get back to St. Louis again
There’s gonna be some changes made
I’m gonna find old Alice and right away where I left off
It’s gonna be just as if I’d stayed

That old organ grinder’s gonna wind his box
And the knife sharpener’s gonna sing
When I get back to St. Louis again
I’m gonna buy that diamond ring

Diamond ring
Diamond ring
Shine like gold
Behold that diamond ring

If I ever get back to St. Louis again
Everybody’s gonna smile
One of the Mack girls dragged me up to Washington
I got stuck there for a while

She gave me more misery than a man can hold
And I took her bad advice
Now I don’t aim to bother anyone
I have paid that awful price

Diamond ring
Diamond ring
Shine like gold
Behold that diamond ring

If ever I get back to St. Louis again
That diamond ring is gonna shine
That old burlesque dancer is gonna bum around
And everything’s gonna be fine

I’m gonna settle up my accounts with lead
And leave the rest up to the law
Then I’m gonna marry the one I love
And head out for Wichita

Diamond ring
Diamond ring
Shine like gold
Behold that diamond ring



Credit: Bob Dylan photo by Xavier Badosa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Screen capture of Taylor Goldsmith via YouTube / Philipp Schwarz.