corundum, quality.10, gems

One of the world's largest and most memorable treasure chambers, the Diamond Treasury of the USSR, the Almazny Fond, is a veritably unique collection of gemstones, nuggets of precious metals and exquisite jewellery. The core and historical nucleus of this collection is comprised of what are commonly known as the Crown Jewels, in other words, the imperial regalia, and the gem-studded insignia of the various orders of chivalry and diverse virtue made by the court jewellers and goldsmiths in the 18th and 19th centuries. When the First World War broke out in 1914 the Crown Jewels were deposited within the Armoury Chamber, or Arms Palace, in the Moscow Kremlin, for long a treasury in its own right. After the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917, these treasures, along with famous gemstones, were nationalized and assembled into a collection that has come to be called the Diamond Treasury of the USSR. When diamonds were discovered in Yakutia, in the 1950s, the rare stones found supplemented the Diamond Treasury, which likewise stored brilliant-cut diamonds well displaying the virtuoso skill of Soviet cutters and also more modern works of art executed by Soviet jewellers. The Treasury also boasts a unique collection of gold and platinum nuggets, second to none in the world by virtue of the diversity of their crystalline structure. Among these one could indicate a platinum nugget tipping the scales at almost the full 8 kilograms and the Grand Triangle—Bolshoi Treugolnik—gold nugget which weighs—believe it or not—no less than 36 kilograms!