Famous Diamonds From the Cullinan Mine 2026: Full List

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GIA calls the Cullinan mine, the old Premier Mine, the locality that has yielded more significant diamonds than any other. It has produced more than 750 stones over 100 carats and over a quarter of all the world's diamonds above 400 carats (source).

Here is the roll of honour, with what each stone weighed, who owns it where that is public, and the questions people ask most about big diamonds.

The quick answer

The list starts with the 3,106-carat Cullinan (1905) and runs through the Niarchos (1954), the Taylor-Burton (1966), the Premier Rose (1978), the Golden Jubilee (1985, cut to 545.67 carats), the Centenary (1986, cut to 273.85 carats, colour D) and a 507-carat white in 2009. Then come the blues: a 39.34-carat stone sold for US$40.18 million in 2021, and a 41.82-carat blue found in December 2025.

Pale blue rough diamonds on a white surface, one held in steel tweezers — An illustration of rough blue diamonds. Petra calls Cullinan the world's most important source of them.

Which famous diamonds came from the Cullinan mine?

The Cullinan, the Niarchos, the Taylor-Burton, the Premier Rose, the Golden Jubilee, the Centenary, the 507-carat stone of 2009 and a string of blue diamonds.

Weights and owners from Wikipedia's Premier Mine page, the individual stone articles linked below, and Petra:

Diamond	Found	Rough	Cut	Where or who today
Cullinan	1905	3,106 ct	9 major stones, I is 530.2 ct	Crown Jewels and the Royal Family
Niarchos	1954	426.5 ct	About 128 ct pear	Not public
Taylor-Burton	1966	241 ct	69.42 ct pear, recut to 68 ct	Robert Mouawad
Premier Rose	1978	353.9 ct	137.02 ct	Robert Mouawad
Golden Jubilee	1985	755.5 ct	545.67 ct, yellow-brown	Grand Palace, Bangkok
Centenary	1986	599 ct	273.85 ct, colour D	Not public
507 ct white	2009	507 ct	Sold rough for US$35.3m	Not public
39.34 ct blue	2021	39.34 ct	Sold rough for US$40.18m	De Beers and Diacore partnership
41.82 ct blue	2025	41.82 ct	To be cut in South Africa	Sold by tender, price confidential

The 2009 stone is often called the Cullinan Heritage online. We could not confirm the name, so we leave it unnamed.

What is the biggest diamond ever found?

The Cullinan: 3,106 carats, the largest gem-quality rough diamond on record. The runner-up is a 2,492-carat stone found in Botswana in 2024.

Gem-quality is the key word. Black, porous carbonado from Brazil can weigh more, but it is not a gem. Among gem diamonds, 120 years on, nothing has beaten Cullinan:

Rough diamond	Carats	Found	Mine
Cullinan	3,106	1905	Premier (Cullinan), South Africa
Motswedi	2,492	2024	Karowe, Botswana
Sewelô	1,758	2019	Karowe, Botswana
Lesedi La Rona	1,111	2015	Karowe, Botswana

Sources: list of largest rough diamonds, 2024 press report. The full Cullinan story, from the evening Frederick Wells spotted it to the snapped blade in Amsterdam, is in the Cullinan Diamond history.

Rough diamonds of many sizes on a white sorting sheet with tweezers and a loupe — An illustration of rough diamonds. The Cullinan weighed about 621 grams on its own.

What is the biggest cut diamond in the world?

The Golden Jubilee, at 545.67 carats, also from this mine, held the title for decades. Cullinan I, at 530.2 carats, is the largest colourless cut diamond.

The Golden Jubilee is 15.37 carats heavier than Cullinan I (source), but it is yellow-brown. For a colourless stone, Historic Royal Palaces and GIA both name Cullinan I.

A newer claim: in November 2025 a Belgian firm presented the Black Falcon, a 612.34-carat black diamond from Guinea, as the largest cut diamond (press report). It is black, so the colourless and gem-quality records still belong to Cullinan stones.

See replicas of these record stones and the mine that produced them, on a two-hour walk.

Check dates for the surface walking tour

Who owns the biggest diamond?

Cullinan I belongs to the Crown, held by King Charles III as monarch, and sits in the Tower of London. The Golden Jubilee is held in the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

The Crown Jewels are not anyone's private property: the monarch holds them in right of the Crown, which is why Cullinan I and II are on show in the Jewel House. Cullinan III to IX are different. Elizabeth II inherited them as personal property, and they are now held privately by the Royal Family.

The Golden Jubilee was presented to King Bhumibol of Thailand and is held in the Grand Palace (source). The original Cullinan rough no longer exists as one stone, so nobody owns it.

Illustration of replica cut diamonds on black stands in a glass case, a large pear-shaped stone in front — An illustration of a replica display. The tour at the mine has a room of copies like this.

What are the Golden Jubilee and Centenary diamonds?

Two giants from the same mine, found a year apart: the 755.5-carat Golden Jubilee rough in 1985 and the 599-carat Centenary rough in 1986.

Gabi Tolkowsky cut the brownish Golden Jubilee rough into a 545.67-carat stone (source). The Centenary was found on 17 July 1986, cut to 273.85 carats with colour D, the top grade for whiteness, and unveiled in May 1991. Its current owner is not public (source). One list gives its rough as 275 carats; the stone's own records say 599.

Pretoria City Tour and Cullinan Diamond Mine

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Did Elizabeth Taylor's diamonds come from the Cullinan mine?

One did: the Taylor-Burton, a 69.42-carat pear cut from a 241-carat rough found at the Premier Mine in 1966.

Harry Winston cut it. At auction in New York on 23 October 1969, Cartier won it for US$1,050,000; Richard Burton, who had been outbid, bought it from Cartier the next day for about US$1.1 million. Taylor sold it in 1979, and Robert Mouawad has owned it since December 1979, recut to about 68 carats (source).

Her other famous stone, the 33.19-carat Elizabeth Taylor Diamond (the Krupp), is a different story. Its mine of origin is unknown, and it sold at Christie's in December 2011 for about US$8.8 million to the South Korean company E-Land (source).

What about the Premier Rose, the Niarchos and the other big whites?

The Premier Rose gave a 137.02-carat colourless stone, the Niarchos a pear of about 128 carats, and the mine still turns up 300 to 500-carat whites.

The Premier Rose rough weighed 353.9 carats and was mined in March 1978. Besides the main stone it gave the 31.48-carat Little Rose and the 2.11-carat Baby Rose; Robert Mouawad owns it. The Niarchos, a 426.5-carat rough found in 1954, was cut for Harry Winston into a pear of about 128 carats and bought by the shipowner Stavros Niarchos, according to gem references.

The run continues: a 507-carat white in 2009, sold in February 2010 for US$35.3 million, a record for a rough diamond at the time, and a 342.92-carat Type IIa white sold for US$10 million in 2021 (Petra).

Close-up of blue-grey kimberlite rock with pale crystals set in it — An illustration of kimberlite, the blue ground every one of these stones came up in.

Why does the Cullinan mine produce so many blue diamonds?

Its kimberlite carries Type IIb diamonds, coloured blue by boron. Petra calls Cullinan the world's most important source of them.

Earlier blues include 26.6 carats in 2009, 25.5 in 2013, 29.6 in 2014 and a 122.52-carat stone in 2014 (source). The 39.34-carat blue was recovered in April 2021 and sold that July for US$40.18 million to a De Beers and Diacore partnership (Rapaport).

The De Beers Cullinan Blue, a 15.10-carat Fancy Vivid Blue, Internally Flawless step cut, was found at Cullinan in April 2021 and sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on 27 April 2022 for about US$57.5 million. The latest, a 41.82-carat blue recovered in December 2025, was sold by tender in 2026 at a confidential price (Petra). More in the blue diamond post.