FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KTHV) -- There's a park in Arkansas where visitors can dig for diamonds. One couple found a huge and rare rough gem and now they're looking at possibly being $21,000 richer.
This is what the Silver Moon Diamond looked like when Melissa and Kenny Oliver found it at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. This is what it looks like now. Bill Underwood at Underwood Fine Jewelers helped the Olivers transform the diamond, and says the look on their face was priceless. Underwood says, "They came up here of course they had no idea what it was going to look like. All they had seen was the uncut diamond. They couldn't imagine how beautiful it would be."
The 1.06 carat pear shaped diamond is close to perfect and worth more than $21,000. Underwood says finding a diamond of that quality in a park is rare. He says, "Most of the diamonds that come out of the ground will have impurities. It's rare for one to be clear and clean and this diamond we've just had cut was a very clean and clear one."
And at 2.44 carats originally, its size is rare as well. Underwood's Fine Jewelers has been appraising diamonds like this one for the past 50 years. Bill Underwood was the first certified gemologist in the state and established the first certified gem lab in Arkansas.
Underwood says, "We got to this proportionoscope and we project a profile of the uncut diamond." Underwood determined a pear shape cut would be best for the Oliver's diamond. Then he sent it off to New York City to be cut, one of the most important steps in the process. Underwood says, "The cutting of the diamond is critical. How well the diamond is cut determines how much light returns from the diamond which relates to the beauty of the diamond."
In all the transformation took six weeks with amazing results. Underwood says, "This diamond is one of the best ones that's ever come from the mine. And it's cut into a very, very nice diamond."
Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world's only diamond producing site open to the public. About two diamonds are found there each day.