Courtesy Sotheby's
This diamond, bought at a car boot sale for $13, is expected to sell for more than $400,000 at auction. It will hit the auction block at Sotheby's on June 7, 2017.
courtesy christies
The "Aurora Green" is the largest Fancy Vivid green diamond ever sold at auction. The stone went under the hammer on May 31, 2016 at Christie's auction house in Hong Kong, selling for $16,818,983.
Christies Images Ltd 2016
The world's largest blue diamond, an extremely rare gem known as "The Oppenheimer Blue", sold for $57.5 million at Christie's Geneva May 18, 2016, making it the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction.
Christies Images Ltd 2016
The 14.62 carat Fancy Vivid stone is mounted on a platinum ring and flanked on either side by a trapeze-shaped diamond.
courtesy sotheby's
'The Unique Pink' is the largest Fancy Vivid pink pear-shaped diamond to ever be offered at auction.
courtesy sotheby's
The diamond was sold for $31.6 million by Sotheby's, at an auction in Geneva. The price makes it the most expensive Fancy Vivid pink diamond to sell at auction.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Cubic zirconia replicas of the original and a modern cut of the Kohinoor diamond, one of the oldest and most famous diamonds in the world.
CNN
The De Beers Millennium Jewel 4 has broken auction records in Asia.
courtesy sotheby's
The stone sold for $31.8 million, which makes it the most expensive piece of jewelry sold at an auction in Asia.
Sotheby's
Sotheby's auctioned this 9.54 carat ring it says belonged to child star Shirley Temple on April 19, 2016. Though it was expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million, it failed to sell.
FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images
This 12.03-carat blue diamond fetched $48.4 million at auction on November 11, 2015. It was previously the world's most expensive price-per-carat diamond sold.
FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images
The fancy, vivid blue diamond was discovered in South Africa in January last year.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images
In recent years, other high-value diamonds have hit the auction block. The 59.60-carat oval cut pink diamond known as "The Pink Star," went for $80 million at a 2013 Sotheby's auction. However, after the buyer defaulted on payment, it was returned to Sotheby's.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
This 118.28 oval white diamond became the largest sold at auction when it went for $30.6 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2013.
Courtesy Sotheby's
In April 2015, a 100-carat, emerald cut, D color, internally flawless diamond -- the largest of its clarity and cut to ever be shown at auction -- sold for $22 million.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
The 76.02-carat 400-year-old Archduke Joseph diamond set a new record for price per carat for a colorless diamond in 2012, when it sold for $21.5 million at a Christie's auction.
Courtesy Chow Tai Fook
In 2010, Hong Kong's largest jewelry retailer, Chow Tai Fook, bought one of the world's largest rough diamonds for $35.3 million.
Courtesy Chow Tai Fook
Jeweler Wallace Chan and a team of craftsman worked 47,000 hours to transform the stone it into this piece, which Chai Tai Fook estimates could be worth $200 million.
CNN
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A 26-carat diamond ring, bought for $13 at a London car boot sale (an outdoor market where people sell personal possessions out of their cars) has been valued at up to $456,000. It is set to be sold on June 7 at a Sotheby’s auction.
The owner bought the ring in the 1980s, thinking it was a piece of ordinary costume jewelery.
“This is an extremely rare find,” said Jessica Wyndham, head of the auction house’s jewelery department. “We’re used to people coming in with pieces from their personal collections but this was exceptional.”
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According to Wyndham, the diamond’s sparkle was likely hidden by the darkened ring mount and the old-fashioned style of the jewel’s cut.
“When we think of diamonds, we think of modern cuts, of brilliance,” Wyndham told CNN. “This wouldn’t have looked like that. The silver had tarnished and there was probably some dirt. These diamonds were made for candlelight, not our white artificial light, so it was all about trying to bring out its fire.”
Heritage Auctions
The earliest known stone copy of the Ten Commandments sold at auction in Beverly Hills in 2016 for $850,000.
Heritage Auctions
The stone was first uncovered in 1913.
Heritage Auctions
"The tablet's significance is testament to the deep roots and enduring power of the Commandments that still form the basis of three of the world's great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam," says David Michaels, director of ancient coins for Heritage Auctions, who will be conducting the sale.
courtesy mossgreen auctions
Specialists at Mossgreen auctions in Australia discovered this Ming dynasty banknote hidden inside the head of this 14th century Buddhist carving. The wooden sculpture represents the head of a Luohan -- an enlightened person who has reached Nirvana in Buddhist culture.
courtesy mossgreen auctions
Its face value was worth roughly $98 at the time of its circulation and the 700-year-old banknote is believed to have been handmade during China's Ming dynasty. Together, the banknote and sculpture are expected to fetch between $30,000 to $45,000 at auction.
courtesy mossgreen auctions
After studying the banknote and carving details, art specialists were able to estimate the sculpture's age, which dates back to China's Hongwu period in the 14th century.
courtesy mossgreen auctions
Mossgreen specialists believe this is the first time a Ming dynasty banknote has been found inside a wooden Buddhist sculpture. They say it's more common to find relics and semi-precious stones left by monks inside Buddhist sculptures.
Uruma Board of Education
Ten ancient Roman and Ottoman coins were recently discovered in castle ruins in Okinawa, Japan. This image shows the front of one of the Roman coins.
Uruma City Educational Board
"I couldn't believe they'd found coins from the Roman empire in Kasturen castle," archiologist Hiroyuki Miyagi, from Okinawa International University, told CNN. This is the front of one of the Ottoman coins.
UNC Charlotte
Archaeologists recently unearthed a rare 2,000 year old Roman coin during a scientific dig in Jerusalem. The gold coin features the face of Emperor Nero and was likely struck in 56-57 AD.
Aileen Cynthia Amurao
In August 2016, the world's largest pearl was discovered under a bed in the Philippines, where it had lain forgotten for over ten years.
Courtesy de Grisogono
This 1,109 carat, tennis ball-sized diamond made headlines in November 2015 when it was pulled out of the Karowe Mine, in Botswana, by Canadian company Lucara Diamond Corp.
Clara Amit, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
In May 2016, divers discovered a 1,600-year-old shipwreck while swimming the ancient Roman port of Caesarea. These rare bronze artifacts were recovered from the ship.
ATLAS
Over 1,300 pounds (590 kg) of bronze Roman coins dating to the 3rd century A.D. were unearthed in April 2016 by construction workers digging a trench in Spain.
Béla Polyvàs, Canton of Aargau
In January 2016, over 4,000 Roman coins were discovered by a fruit and vegetable farmer on a molehill in his cherry orchard in Switzerland.
courtesy william henry
The bead on this bracelet, from Portland-based design company William Henry, is actually made using fossilized mammoth tooth and dinosaur bones.
After decades of wearing the ornament, the owner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, decided to have the ring valued at a local jeweler’s, where it was suggested that the ring might be set with a genuine diamond. Eventually it was revealed that the jewel was a cushion-shaped diamond, set in a 19th-century mount.
The ring is now expected to fetch between $325,000 to $456,000 at auction.