Minerals Topics

Selected Virginia Minerals (Part 13)

Diamond

• Five diamonds have been found in or very near Virginia.

• The second largest diamond found in the United States, the Punch Jones diamond (34.48 carats), was found by a small boy along a creek in Peterstown, West Virginia (see photo below).

• The Dewey diamond (23.75 carats) was found in the Richmond area in 1854.

• A diamond was found at the Vaucluse gold mine in Orange County in 1836.  Another diamond was found at the Whitehall gold mine in Spotsylvania County in the 1880s.

• One diamond (0.83 carats) was found in a Tazewell County cornfield in 1913.

Punch Jones Diamond
Peterstown, WV creek, where the Punch Jones diamond was found (Photographs by Robert Whisonant)

MapThis historical marker (left) at Peterstown, West Virginia, tells the story of the Punch Jones diamond.  Many geologists believe that the diamond originally came from rocks exposed in western Virginia and was carried by streams into West Virginia.  The creek where the diamond was found is shown in the photograph.  Peterstown is very near the Virginia state line in Giles County.