The Eureka Diamond

  The Eureka Diamond was found in the vicinity of Hopestown on the Orange River in South Africa. Erasmus Jacobs, a fifteen-year-old shepherd boy, found the Eureka in 1866 and kept it for a while; he then passed it on to his neighbor, Schalk Van Niekerk. Van Niekerk was a collector of atypical stones and diamonds; he later bought the famous Star of South Africa after studying diamonds for a few years. The Eureka was then entrusted to a traveling supplier by the name of John O’Reilly. O’Reilly then sent the it to Dr. W.G. Atherstone in an opened envelope; Dr. Atherstone lived in Grahamstown. He was very familiar with diamonds and identified it as a brownish yellow color weighing 21.25 carats. The Eureka Diamond was then sold to Sir Phillip Wodehouse. In 1867 the Eureka appeared in the Paris Exposition; it was soon after cut to 10.73 carats. Although the Eureka Diamond is not extraordinary, it was the first diamond discovered in South Africa.