It all started in 1905 at the Premier Mine in South Africa. A mine manager, Frederick Wells, was making his rounds when he saw something glittering in the wall. He wasn’t looking for the world’s biggest diamond; he was probably just avoiding the heat. But there it was: a crystal the size of a fist, staring back at him like a cosmic sneeze.
Wells didn’t scream or faint, which shows incredible self-control. He just plucked it out with a pocketknife, because apparently, that’s how you handle a universe-class treasure. The diamond was so huge that no one believed it was real at first. People thought it was a piece of glass, a joke, or maybe a really clear rock a giant dropped on his way to work. The mine owner, Sir Thomas Cullinan, had to send it to London via a decoy package on a steamship, guarded by detectives, while the real diamond was mailed in a simple box by parcel post. Yes, they literally put it in the mail, like a sweater from grandma.
