The Jacob Diamond as an Engagement Ring

The Jacob Diamond is now a part of an exclusive exhibit of the ongoing jewels of the Nizam of Hyderabad at the National Museum in New Delhi. Visitors to this exhibition are left awestruck at the range and magnificence on display and taken aback at the sheer opulence that this exhibition evokes amongst it’s audience. Security to the exhibition is tight and the chambers guarding the Jacob diamond are reinforced with steel and concrete. However this nor the high price of a rupee fifty ticket has deterred the audiences and this exhibit is one of the best attended at the museum. The viewing of the Jacob diamond is central to the overall experience and forms the center stage of this unique and overwhelming experience. It is diamonds like these that inspire people to make the diamond engagement ring as their own. After all it is not possible for everyone to keep a Jacob Diamond, so a diamond engagement ring for your loved one is not too bad.

The Jacob Diamond is now owned by the Government of India and is ranked among the seventh largest in the world. It was earlier known as the Imperial diamond that belonged the Nizam of Hyderabad, and was retrieved by the last Nizam, Osman Ali Khan after the death of the Nizam. History has it that the Nizam tried it on his hand as a diamond engagement ring but it was too large for his fingers.

Originally the Jacob Diamond was believed to be over four hundred carats in weight but was cut to size in Europe. The diamond is colorless and believed to be from a South African mine and weighs one hundred and eighty four and a half carats.

The Jacob Diamond gets its name from Alexander Malcon Jacob who put the diamond up for sale to Mahbub Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Nizam offered a paltry rupees forty-six lakhs for the Jacob Diamond and was also required to make adequate security deposit for the transaction. However, when the jewel cutters lost track of this security deposit, the Jacob Diamond was awarded to the Nizam in an out of court settlement for a sum of rupees twenty three lakhs that was almost half the price of the sale. The Nizam used the Jacob diamond as a paper weight till it’s real value was established and the diamond became a prized possession amongst his enormous wealth and assets.

After the princely states acceded and amalgamated into the Union of India, Osman Ali Khan, the then Nizam set up a trust in order to preserve and document his vast wealth under the auspices of “H.E.H The Nizam’s Jewellery Trust” in 1951. The Jacob Diamond along with other priceless heirlooms, artefacts, palaces and vintage cars formed an enviable list of prized possessions of the Nizam.

The Jacob Diamond along with other priceless treasures of the Nizam were forcibly purchased by the Government of India from his trust for an estimated thirteen million dollars in 1995 and the Reserve Bank of India was made it’s repository. While it is difficult to exactly calculate the precise worth of the magnificent diamond, estimates have put its worth at around four hundred crores. Some experts feel that only the Kohi-Noor diamond challenges its magnificence and in worth a diamond engagement ring that you have given to your fiancé is as expensive as this because love will never judge values.

Subtlety and understated wealth are certainly not the way the Jewels on display at the National Museum can be defined. They bedazzle and blind, inspire and let loose a million copiers. While a select one hundred and seventy three pieces have been displayed, which include anklets, armbands, turban embellishments, and gilded weaponry, the Jacob Diamond is by far the central piece of the exhibition. How I wish, I could get my hands on something like that!