The question is often asked: “What is the value of the Stars of South Africa?” And it is a very difficult one to answer, for curiously enough stones above a certain size lose their commercial value, for few have the money or inclination to buy gems of enormous size, and fewer still would be bold enough to wear them. Nobody but a King or a Queen, for instance, could wear a diamond which on an ordinary person would look and certainly be taken for the lustre from a candelabra. Thus the market becomes strictly limited, as was definitely brought home to the owners of the Premier Mine. It was thus that the Union Government were enabled to buy a stone valued at £1,500,000 for £150,000, a stone which even when split into four is still of an aggregate value difficult to compute. Let us elude the difficulty and say they are worth a million and a half, and leave it at that. It is interesting to compare the Cullinan with other well-known diamonds of size and historic value, though curiously enough even the present existence of these stones is not in all cases certain. Those, for instance, which formed part of the regalia of the late Tsar of Russia are for very obvious reasons at present in hiding. The largest of these is the Orloff, which weighs 194 carats. This great stone came from India, and was reputed to be a cleavage from the still greater stone, the Koh-i-Nur. It was stolen by a French grenadier from the eye-socket of an idol in a Hindu temple. He deserted the army and sold the stone to the captain of an English merchant ship for £2000. By him it was conveyed to Holland, where a Jew named Khojeh Raphael gave £12,000 for it; and at once resold it to Orloff for Catherine the Great for £90,000 and an annuity of £4000! Since that time this great stone has remained one of the Russian Crown Jewels, and when last seen was set at the head of the sceptre of the late Tsar. Where it is now or what its fate the future may perhaps reveal. Another large diamond, named the Shah, of very curious shape, also was amongst the Russian Crown Jewels. It is flat and rectangular in shape, with a Persian inscription engraved upon it and a groove cut round. It weighs 86 carats and was given by the Shah of Persia to the Emperor Nicholas I. The stone is an exceptionally fine one, but owing to its peculiar shape its value can only be conjectured. The Polar Star is another very fine diamond which formed part of the Russian regalia. It was bought by the Russians in London about seventy years ago, and is described as of remarkable purity and brilliancy. It weighs 40 carats, but the price paid for it and its present value is not known. Nor its whereabouts.