The 9.8mm natural quahog pearl at the center of the engagement ring Ken Steinkamp presented to Sandy Sikorski last summer continues to be a symbol of their love story. The couple just hosted a pearl-themed wedding at the famed Ocean House resort, high on the bluffs of Watch Hill, RI, and Inside Edition was on hand to chronicle the festivities. Pearl and clam iconography abounded. There were faux pearls affixed to the place settings, pearl beads decorating the champagne bottles and pearl-like candies streaming down the side of the wedding cake. At the top of the cake was an open clam revealing ..read more

For more than 2,000 years, the Golconda mines on the banks of the Krishna River in southern India produced virtually all the world’s fine diamonds. Many of history’s most famous diamonds claimed a Golconda origin, and these included the 105-carat Koh-i-noor (replica, above), 45-carat Hope Diamond, 140-carat Regent Diamond, 189-carat Orlov and the 70-carat Idol’s Eye. During peak production between the 1600s and the 1800s, the Golconda mines supported a massive operation that employed 30,000 people at a time. Golconda’s mines produced an estimated 10 million carats of diamonds before the resou ..read more

Seven-time All Pro center Jason Kelce revealed on Wednesday that he lost his 2018 Super Bowl ring in a kiddie pool full of chili during the “Lombaby” Games on the campus of the University of Cincinnati (UC). The Lombaby Games pit UC student-athletes against academics in goofy, Olympic-style games, including one where contestants searched two pools filled with Skyline Chili for Kelce’s Super Bowl ring along with other decoy rings. In the end, the decoys were found, but the authentic Philadelphia Eagles ring emblazoned with 219 diamonds and 17 green sapphires had disappeared. “I legitimately lo ..read more

Welcome to Music Friday when we like to shine the spotlight on inspirational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, five-time Grammy nominee Brandon Heath seeks divine intervention in “Diamond,” his 2012 song about a young coal miner who “has only scratched the surface.” He wants to be a better man, but needs God’s help to find the “diamond” buried deep inside. He sings, “I got something down inside of me / That only You can see / Help me dig a little deeper now / And set that diamond free.” For Heath, the diamond symbolizes the ability to bring his li ..read more

With gold trading near an all-time high, it might be a great time to take a closer look at another undeniably elegant noble metal, platinum. Gold was in the news last Friday as it hit $2,448 per ounce due to investors flocking to the precious metal as a hedge against inflation and international uncertainty. By contrast, an ounce of platinum was priced at $1,000 per ounce, about 41% of gold’s value. Historically, platinum has traded at a premium to gold. In January of 2014, for instance, one could purchase an ounce of platinum for $1,378, while an ounce of gold sold for $1,225. In January of 1 ..read more

Back in October of 2017, thousands of astronomers from around the globe joined together to confirm the first-ever sighting of two neutron stars colliding in space. In just one second, the “kilonova” located 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra triggered the equivalent of 50 Earth masses of silver, 100 Earth masses of gold and 500 Earth masses of platinum. The scientists estimated that the gold alone was worth more than $100 octillion. That’s $100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 followed by 29 zeroes). The astronomers aimed their equipment at the super-dense kil ..read more

Phillips is estimating that a magnificent 6.21-carat Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ring could fetch as much as $15 million as the star lot of its “Geneva Jewels Auction: TWO” on May 13. Other baubles expected to turn heads at Hotel President Geneva include a 280.84-carat Colombian emerald and a super-rare 1.56-carat Fancy Red diamond. In all, the meticulously curated sale of just over 100 lots will showcase signed jewels from illustrious houses such as Cartier, JAR, Sterlé, Suzanne Belperron, and Van Cleef & Arpels. The property of an “important private collector,” the 6.21-carat pink diamond ..read more

Welcome to Music Friday when we feature wonderful tunes with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, introspective indie artist Briston Maroney sings about achieving his life-long dream of dating a girl with “eyes of gold” and then comes to the realization that he still feels empty in his 2017 release, “June.” He sings, “Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told / My woman, she’s got eyes of gold / Well, I spend all day and I search all night / ‘Til I see ’em in that perfect light / Oh, I’m gonna see ’em in that perfect light.” The term “eyes of gold” reflects songwr ..read more

A Botswana diamond exploration company is employing artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of 380 gigabytes of survey data that will help identify the best places to find new deposits. About the size of France, 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. Making the monumental decision about where the country’s next diamond mine sho ..read more

During the April 7 episode of Gold Rush: White Water, Dustin Hurt and his mining team are moved to tears after pulling a near-6-ounce nugget from their Alaskan claim. The extraordinary find — which is estimated to be worth more than $20,000 — came at a time when the crew was struggling to make ends meet. They saw the nugget as the late Fred Hurt’s way of saying thanks to the team for following his crazy dream of white water gold mining. Fred was 80 years old when he succumbed to brain cancer only four month’s after being diagnosed with the disease. The veteran miner and father of Dustin was t ..read more