Extremely rare star ruby ​​worth nearly 100 million USD

Four star-shaped rubies in the middle and a total weight of 342 carats were found by an American guide while walking in the mountains.

Wayne Messer , a fishing guide in North Carolina, USA, discovered traces of corundum, a crystalline mineral that created rubies and sapphires while walking along a stream in the Appalachia mountains in the western part of the state in 1990, According to Mother Nature Network. Messer dug 2.4 meters deep and found a total of four extremely rare star rubies weighing 342 carats, later named the Star ruby ​​collection on the mountain.

Appalachia rubies (second from left) are the largest in Messer's collection.(Photo: Guernsey's).

A ruby ​​named "Appalachia star Ruby" in the collection is among the largest star ruby ​​known. The ruby ​​weighs 139.43 carats and is slightly larger than the Rosser Reeves 138.72 carat star ruby ​​on display at Smithsonia National Museum of Natural History.

"I am very surprised and surprised when nature can create such a large gem," said Sam Fore, a gemstone cutter, honing Messer 's Appalachia star ruby. "Its initial mass was 377 carats. That stone alone was a world record."

Rubies are exceptionally rare compared to diamonds, but ruby ​​is even rarer. The shining star figure shows up when the stone is cut into a round dome, reflecting light from a titanium crystal like a needle inside a stone. Named as asterism, this optical phenomenon also occurs in other gems such as sapphire.

In October 1992, Appalachia star ruby ​​exhibition in London History Museum attracted an estimated 150,000 people. According to Garden & Gun, the collection has been sold many times over the years with valuations up to nearly 100 million USD. Years after Messer died of cancer, his family decided to sell the collection through the Guernsey's auction house in New York. According to Arlan Ettinger, founder and director of Guernsey's auction house, the Messer family only agreed to sell all four rubies at the same time.