For the first time, holiday retail sales in the United States are expected to top $1 trillion, with consumers continuing to prioritize gifts and celebrations despite inflation, rising gasoline prices and an uneven economic outlook. The National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts that November and December sales will reach $1.013 trillion, a 4.2% increase over 2025.



The projection marks an acceleration from last year, when holiday sales increased 3.1% to $972 billion. If the forecast holds, this year would deliver the strongest holiday sales growth since 2021, when sales surged 12.6%.

“This year’s forecast reflects our confidence that consumers will prioritize the holiday season even as they remain mindful of their budgets,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.

Speaking during an October 15 media call, Shay emphasized that Americans have consistently made holiday spending on loved ones a priority.

“They’ve repeatedly shown that the holidays and spending on loved ones are priorities,” he said.

Still, the record-breaking forecast comes with an important caveat: Not all households are experiencing the economy in the same way. NRF leaders described a K-shaped spending pattern, in which higher-income consumers continue to drive a disproportionate share of retail growth, while households with tighter budgets remain more cautious.

NRF Chief Economist and Executive Director of Research Mark Mathews said rising financial wealth is supporting spending among affluent households, while higher gas and food prices are putting greater pressure on moderate- and lower-income consumers. In some retail sectors, Mathews noted during the call, the top 10% of spenders account for as much as 70% of sales.

The forecast offers reason for optimism, particularly among shoppers with room in their budgets for meaningful gifts. Consumers are expected to remain deliberate and value-conscious, making attractive designs, compelling price points and thoughtful gift options important throughout the season.

US retailers are preparing for the demand by planning to hire between 325,000 and 375,000 seasonal workers, roughly in line with last year’s estimated 356,000 hires.

NRF also expects artificial intelligence to play a larger role in holiday shopping, as consumers increasingly use AI tools to research products and compare options.

The NRF defines the holiday season as November 1 through December 31 and excludes automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants from its retail-sales calculation. Holiday sales have accounted for approximately 19% of annual retail sales over the past five years.

Credit: Image by The Jeweler Blog using aichatapp.ai.

In Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Arrows,” David Crosby reflects on hardship and transformation through these memorable lyrics: “I have a thing about arrows / And diamonds and coal / Pressure turning carbon to jewels.” These opening lines offer a powerful reminder that life’s most challenging experiences can become the raw material for personal transformation. Just as pressure can turn carbon into a diamond, adversity can force a person to confront painful truths, discover inner strength and emerge with a renewed sense of purpose.



Welcome to Music Friday, when we highlight songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics.

For Crosby, the metaphor carried a deeply personal resonance. The song’s imagery of arrows turned inward suggests that growth begins not by blaming others, but by examining one’s own choices and weaknesses. Its uplifting message — “You can turn it around” — offers hope that even after hitting bottom, a person can find a path to the top.

Co-written by Crosby and acoustic guitarist Michael Hedges, “Arrows” appeared as the ninth track on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s sixth studio album, Live It Up, released in June of 1990. Although the song was never issued as a commercial single, the album reached No. 57 on the Billboard 200.
The timing of the song is significant. By the mid-1980s, Crosby’s long struggle with cocaine and heroin addiction had devastated his health and career. In 1986, he began serving a prison sentence in Texas for drug and weapons offenses. Without access to drugs or musical instruments, he endured a painful withdrawal and was released on parole later that year.

Crosby would later describe prison as an experience that helped save his life. His path to recovery was neither simple nor painless, but it marked the beginning of a remarkable comeback. By the time Live It Up arrived, he was sober and had begun rebuilding his personal life, including marrying Jan Dance in 1987.

Against that backdrop, the song’s diamond imagery becomes more than a poetic flourish. The coal represents a person’s darkest moments; the pressure represents the difficult work of facing them. And the jewel represents the possibility of becoming stronger and wiser without pretending the past never happened. The arrows turned inward are not weapons of self-destruction, but instruments of honest self-examination.

Crosby’s journey gave this message particular weight. A founding member of the Byrds before joining Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, he helped shape the harmonies and sound of a generation. Crosby, Stills & Nash became one of the defining supergroups of the late 1960s and 1970s, earning a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1970. With Neil Young joining them at various points, the expanded lineup became Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Across their different configurations, the musicians sold tens of millions of records and left an enduring mark on rock music. The trio was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Crosby died in January 2023 at age 81, but Stills and Nash remain living links to the group’s extraordinary legacy.

Please check out the audio track of Crosby, Stills & Nash performing "Arrows." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"Arrows"
Written by David Crosby and Michael Hedges. Performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Arrows turned inward are good for the soul
I have a thing about arrows
And diamonds and coal
Pressure turning carbon to jewels

Slowly they aim at my iron mark
Flaming healing arrows
They beat at my heart
Angels turning metal to tools

I don't care what you think has got you down
You can turn it around
I don't care what you think, turn it around
Turn it around, turn it around

Times that I knew I could never get through
That's when I grew up the most
And alone sounds so sad
But alone I found the best friend I had

I don't care what you think has got you down
You can turn it around
I don't care what you think, turn it around
Turn it around, turn it around

Arrows turned inward are good for the soul
Piercing through every callus
They always get through
My target is a heart no one fools

Turn it around, turn it around
Turn it around, turn it around



Credit: Photo by Eddi Laumanns aka RX-Guru, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

For families across the American heartland, a giant pile of corn kernels can be the perfect place for little ones to dig, scoop, tumble and play while Mom snaps adorable fall photos. But amid the pumpkin patches, hayrides, apple cider donuts — and corn pits — there’s a surprising hazard that can turn a carefree autumn outing into a jewelry owner’s nightmare.



Here's the problem: When thousands of kernels rub against one another, they release a fine, powdery residue of corn starch. As children and adults plunge their hands into the corn, that dust coats their fingers and reduces the natural friction that helps keep rings in place. An engagement ring that normally fits securely can suddenly become slippery enough to slide off without its owner even noticing.

Add the constant motion of digging, scooping and reaching through a deep bed of kernels, and a precious ring can disappear in a blink. Cooler autumn temperatures may make the problem worse if fingers shrink slightly in the chill, leaving a ring with an even looser fit.

The danger isn’t theoretical. In October 2023, Gull Meadow Farms in Kalamazoo County, MI, reported that a visitor had found an engagement ring in its 1,500-square-foot Corn Crib. The farm appealed to the public for help locating the owner, carefully withholding a photo so the rightful owner would have to identify the ring.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Jess Tran’s diamond wedding ring vanished during a family visit to Waldoch Farm. She didn’t realize it was missing until she and her husband were preparing to leave with their three young sons. The ring had disappeared into what must have seemed like an endless sea of corn.

Tran rented a metal detector and returned to the farm before it opened. After searching, she recovered her ring — along with another person’s earring and some stray coins. Her relief was enormous. As she told the Star Tribune, “My heart just started pounding.” She said she began screaming and crying, feeling as if she were being proposed to all over again.

At Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Maze, also in Minnesota, jewelry losses were so frequent that the operators kept metal detectors on hand. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, keys and cellphones all found their way into the kernels.

Finding a lost ring in a corn pit is no easy task. Kernels shift and settle, concealing jewelry beneath layers of nearly identical pieces. Even if a farm has a metal detector, recovery can mean a painstaking search — and there’s no guarantee the ring will be found.

Fortunately, the simplest solution is also the most effective: remove engagement rings, wedding bands and other loose jewelry before entering a corn pit. Store them securely at home or in a safe place before the family outing begins. Check for warning signs at the entrance, too.

Corn pits are meant to create happy fall memories, not heartbreaking jewelry mysteries. With a little preparation, parents can focus on the giggles, the photo opportunities and the pumpkin-spiced treats — without worrying that a family heirloom might vanish beneath the kernels.

Credit: Image by The Jeweler Blog using aichatapp.ai.

For nearly 600 years, a small ceramic jug buried near Moscow held a secret fortune in silver. When archaeologists unearthed it in the historic Russian city of Kolomna, they found more than 2,600 medieval coins, including more than 350 previously unknown varieties that are expanding researchers’ understanding of the region’s money supply in the 1420s.



Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences uncovered the jug in a shallow natural pit in Kolomna’s medieval settlement, near the city’s Kremlin. The vessel itself is an intriguing artifact, described by researchers as a small, elegant ceramic jug decorated with engobe, a colored clay coating applied to its surface.

Inside were more than 2,600 silver dengi, the principal coin denomination circulating in the region at the time. Each coin was worth half a kopek. The word dengi, the plural of denga, eventually became the modern Russian word for money.

The coins date primarily to the reigns of two Moscow grand princes: Vasily I Dmitrievich, who ruled from 1389 to 1425, and his son Vasily II Vasilyevich, known as "the Blind," who ruled from 1425 to 1462. The latest coins were minted during the second half of the 1420s, helping researchers establish when the treasure was probably buried.



What makes the discovery especially exciting is its remarkable variety. More than 350 previously unknown types of Kolomna coins have already been identified. Many were minted locally during the final years of Vasily I’s reign and feature an unusual image of a bird in flight. Such coins are exceptionally rare in hoards discovered elsewhere, and some specimens are so rare that they are absent from the collections of Russia’s largest museums.



Tiny differences in coin designs can reveal which dies — the engraved tools used to strike coins — produced them. By examining these variations and connections between dies, specialists hope to reconstruct the sequence of coin production in Kolomna over at least 15 years. The hoard may also help identify the final issues of the city’s distinctive bird-design coins.

For archaeologists, the coins are more than a buried fortune. Preserved together in their original grouping, they provide an unusually detailed picture of the money changing hands in medieval Kolomna — and a remarkable opportunity to recover a lost chapter of Russia’s economic history.

The collection’s composition offers a glimpse into Kolomna’s economic importance. A major center of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the city was second only to Moscow itself in significance within the principality. The predominance of grand-princely coins reflects the region’s distinctive monetary system.

So, who owned the treasure? Its considerable size suggests a wealthy individual, perhaps a high-ranking official serving the grand prince, a local administrator or a successful merchant. Yet the owner apparently never returned to retrieve it.

Researchers believe the jug was buried in the late 1420s, a period when epidemics swept through the cities of medieval Rus’. They suggest its owner may have died during an outbreak between 1425 and 1427, leaving the fortune hidden underground. This remains a theory, however. No evidence has identified the owner or established exactly what happened.

Credits: Photos courtesy of The Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

A dazzling 24-carat pink diamond with a remarkable 70-year family history is preparing for its first-ever auction appearance. Known as "The Bulgari Pink," the emerald-cut gem will headline Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on November 10, with an estimate of $12 million to $18 million. Its story spans India’s legendary diamond fields, the glamour of postwar Rome, and generations of private ownership by a distinguished European noble family.



According to family lore, the rough diamond was acquired in India during the 1950s by the current owner’s great-grandfather. Its precise origin has not been confirmed, but Christie’s notes that its exceptional qualities evoke historic diamonds from India’s fabled Golconda mines, which supplied some of the world’s most celebrated gems. The stone was subsequently entrusted to Bulgari in Rome, where it was transformed into the elegant ring we see today.

The diamond’s Fancy Intense Pink color grade is a major part of its appeal. Pink diamonds owe their distinctive hue to distortions in their crystal structure that affect how light travels through the stone. The Bulgari Pink’s rectangular step cut, commonly known as an emerald cut, gives it a sophisticated architectural appearance, with broad, mirror-like facets that showcase its color and clarity.

It is also classified as a Type IIa diamond, a chemically pure category representing less than 2% of gem-quality diamonds. Its 24-carat size, pink color and refined cut make it an extraordinary combination. Fancy Intense Pink sits just below Fancy Vivid Pink, the highest color-saturation grade in this classification, adding another intriguing dimension to the gem’s auction prospects.

Bulgari’s role in the diamond’s transformation connects it to one of jewelry’s most glamorous eras. During the 1950s, Rome emerged as an international center of postwar sophistication, earning the nickname “Hollywood on the Tiber” as major film productions attracted movie stars to Cinecittà Studios. Bulgari’s boutique on Via Condotti became a social and cultural meeting place for celebrated couples, including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer.

The Bulgari Pink remained in the same family’s private hands for more than seven decades, never previously appearing at public auction. Christie’s will offer the ring during its November 10 sale at Geneva’s Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, with the jewel scheduled for public viewing November 5–10.

Other Fancy Intense Pink diamonds have commanded impressive prices. In June 2024, the 10.20-carat, internally flawless Eden Rose sold at Christie’s for $13.29 million. In November 2023, the 15.48-carat Pink Supreme achieved $10.81 million at Christie’s Hong Kong.

Fancy Vivid Pink diamonds have reached even more astonishing heights. The 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star sold for approximately $71.2 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2017, setting a world auction record for a gemstone. In 2022, the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star brought in $57.7 million, setting a record price per carat for a gemstone.

Credit: Image courtesy of Christie's.

In 1926, a 10-year-old Arkansas girl helping her father hoe weeds in a cotton field spotted something unusual gleaming in the dirt. She picked up what she called a “pretty pebble” and kept it as a curiosity. Little did Alice Taylor know that her pocket-sized treasure was a 27.21-carat rough diamond — believed to be the second-largest diamond ever discovered in Arkansas. Now, a century after its discovery, the celebrated stone has returned to its home state for a special exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.



For roughly 20 years after it was found, the diamond remained an unrecognized family keepsake. After Alice grew up and married, becoming Mrs. Pelie Howell, she stored the stone in a small leather pouch in her dresser drawer. Its adventures included an accidental disappearance beneath the family’s porch, where one of her children had dropped it through a knothole. The shiny pebble was recovered about a year later when another child crawled underneath the porch looking for hidden chicken eggs.

The family eventually began to wonder whether the stone might be more than an ordinary rock. One day, Howell accidentally dragged it across her iron stove and discovered that it scratched the metal without suffering any apparent damage. Suspecting it could be a diamond, she and her husband took it to jewelers in nearby Searcy. Their hopes were met with laughter and skepticism.

The objection seemed logical: Arkansas’s famous diamond-bearing volcanic formation is near Murfreesboro, far from Searcy. The two towns are approximately 163 miles apart. How could a diamond have ended up in a cotton field so far from the state’s recognized diamond source?

The mystery has never been definitively solved. One theory suggests that Native Americans may have discovered the stone near Murfreesboro centuries earlier and traded it north. Whatever its journey, the diamond had spent two decades in the Howell family’s possession before its true identity was established.

In May 1946, the stone was sent to specialists, who confirmed that it was a genuine 27.21-carat diamond. Tiffany & Co. purchased it from Howell for a reported $8,500 — a remarkable windfall for a modest family. The money reportedly enabled her to buy a new home and pay off the mortgage on her parents’ farm, the very property where she had found the diamond as a child.

Tiffany chose not to cut or polish the stone. Instead, the company preserved it in its original rough form, maintaining the appearance of the remarkable crystal that had emerged from the Arkansas soil. It subsequently became part of the Tiffany Archives in New York.

Now, the Arkansas Diamond is taking center stage in “Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination,” on view at Crystal Bridges from October 9, 2026, through March 29, 2027. The exhibition also includes two other notable diamonds discovered in Arkansas, alongside exceptional Tiffany jewelry and works from the museum’s collection.



Jewelry highlights include naturalistic orchid brooches created by George Paulding Farnham in the late 19th century, as well as Jean Schlumberger’s elaborate "Hedges and Flowers" necklace and iconic "Bird on a Rock" creations.



The "Hedges and Flowers" necklace (1978-1987) features intense pinkish-red tourmalines, turquoise and brilliant round diamonds set in gold and platinum.



The Bird on a Rock brooch (1965) captures a majestic, hand-sculpted platinum bird accented with 18-karat yellow gold perched atop a vibrant blue-violet tanzanite. The bird is pavé-set with brilliant-cut diamonds and features a bezel-set pink sapphire for its eye.

Credits: Images courtesy of Tiffany & Co. Archives.

Welcome to Music Friday, when we celebrate songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Journey's "Daydream" takes us somewhere far beyond the ordinary world, where diamonds once were stone, pearls and gold fill our dreams, and crystal ships sail under a silver moon.



The song first appeared in 1979 on Evolution, Journey’s fifth studio album and a pivotal release in the band’s rise toward arena-rock superstardom. Tucked away as the album’s final track, the dreamy deep cut was never released as a single, but Evolution itself became Journey’s biggest commercial success to that point. It reached #20 on the Billboard 200 and eventually earned a triple-platinum certification.

The song’s jewelry connection arrives immediately with the recurring line, “Yes, those bright diamonds once were stone.” In the context of a daydream, the transformation is almost magical: something ordinary and rough becomes something precious, brilliant and highly coveted. The lyric can be heard as a meditation on how humble beginnings, given enough time and transformation, can evolve into something radiant.

That idea fits naturally into the song’s surreal landscape. Pearls and gold appear as idealized treasures, representing beauty, abundance and the kind of wealth that exists in imagination rather than a jewelry box. The dreamer isn't simply admiring expensive objects; these precious materials become symbols of a world in which anything seems possible.

Journey surrounds those gems with equally fantastical images. “Crystal ships” and “silver streams” create a landscape that feels weightless and hypnotic, while angels’ wings suggest escape from the limits of everyday life. The song's closing message, “Live the dreams you search, but can't find,” reinforces the invitation to leave the tangible world behind and enter a realm where stone becomes diamond and streams become silver.

“Daydream” is a mostly forgotten gem from a band that had undergone considerable transformation of its own. Journey formed in San Francisco in 1973, initially as a progressive jazz-fusion project assembled by former Santana manager Herbie Herbert. Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie, both Santana veterans, were part of the original lineup. After early albums emphasized instrumental and progressive rock, the band added singer Steve Perry in 1977, helping launch the sound that would make Journey a global rock powerhouse.

Evolution arrived with the band's new commercial momentum. “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” became Journey’s first Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 16. The group went on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide, building a catalog filled with enduring hits such as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Open Arms” and “Faithfully.”

More than five decades after its formation, Journey continues to perform. Guitarist Neal Schon, the sole remaining member of the original 1973 lineup still performing with the band, remains onstage for The Final Frontier Tour, billed as Journey’s farewell tour, with dates extending through late 2026 and into 2027.

And “Daydream” remains a particularly sparkling reminder of Journey’s early, more exploratory sound. Please check out the audio track of Steve Perry and Journey performing today's featured song. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"Daydream"
Written by Gregg Rolie, Stephen Ray Perry, Neal Joseph Schon and Ross L. Valory. Performed by Journey.

Shining in the silver moon
Crystal ships are sailing to the sea.

Fly, fly by my window
Flyin' so free, yeah
Yes, they fly, fly by my window.

Yes, those bright diamonds once were stone
Rollin' down a silver stream.
Yes, those bright diamonds once were stone.

Sail on a silver wings of fire
Sailing dreams beyond the silver moon.

In silver clouds that fly so high
Live the dreams you search but can't find.

Yes, they fly, fly by my window
Flyin' so free, yeah
Yes, they fly, fly by my window.

Yes, those bright diamonds once were stone
Rollin' down a silver stream.
Yes, those bright diamonds once were stone.

Ohhhhhh.

Ohhhhhh.



Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / The Midnight Special.

Few gemstones can rival the visual drama of a fine black opal. Against a naturally dark background, flashes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet can appear to glow from within the stone, creating a miniature rainbow that seems to move as the gem catches the light. For October babies, black opal represents one of the most spectacular expressions of the month’s official birthstone.



The finest examples of black opal come from Lightning Ridge, a remote outback mining region in New South Wales, Australia, where the gem has been mined since 1903. Black opals are distinguished by their dark gray to black body color, which provides a dramatic backdrop for their play-of-color. That contrast makes the colors appear particularly vivid, helping make top-quality Lightning Ridge black opals among the world’s most coveted opals.

Black opals are also exceptionally difficult to find. The dark-body material represents only a small fraction of the opal recovered at Lightning Ridge, and the stones with the most desirable combinations of intense color, strong red flashes and attractive patterns are rarer still.

Mining itself is challenging: the fields are remote and the opal-bearing layers can be buried beneath difficult outback terrain, requiring miners to sink shafts and work underground with specialized equipment. Decades of mining have also made the richest deposits increasingly difficult to reach. For independent miners, the considerable cost, physical demands and uncertainty of the work can make every promising pocket a high-stakes discovery.

The 26.9-carat black opal, shown above, was sourced at Lightning Ridge and gifted to the Smithsonian in 1970 by Mrs. Oliver B. James. Today, the cabochon-cut gem is a permanent part of the National Gem Collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Its face displays an extraordinary spectrum of red, violet, blue, green and orange.

Scientists believe that between 100 million and 97 million years ago, an enormous inland sea covering much of Australia began to retreat. As the landscape dried, silica-rich material carried by water seeped into cracks and cavities in the underlying rock. Over immense stretches of time, the silica formed the hydrated silica mineral we know as opal.

Precious opal gets its spectacular play-of-color from microscopic silica spheres arranged in an orderly structure. When white light encounters those layers, it is diffracted into its component colors. The size and spacing of the spheres influence which colors appear, with the larger structures needed to produce the highly coveted red hue generally being rarer than those producing blue and green.

Much of the material recovered from opal fields is called “potch,” an opal without play-of-color. It contains the same basic silica composition as precious opal, but its microscopic spheres lack the orderly arrangement needed to create the rainbow effect.

Black opal is only one member of the opal family. White opal has a light body color, while boulder opal forms with a layer of ironstone attached to the opal. Crystal opal is transparent or translucent enough to allow its play-of-color to be seen through the body, and fire opal, best known from Mexico, typically displays a yellow, orange or red body color.

Australia remains the world's leading source of fine opal, with major fields beyond Lightning Ridge. Opal is also mined in Mexico, Ethiopia, Brazil, Honduras, the Czech Republic and parts of the United States, including Nevada and Idaho.

An opal contains 3% to 21% water within its silica structure, and its appearance and value depend on factors including body tone, brightness, color, pattern and consistency from different viewing angles.

Credit: Photo by Chip Clark/Smithsonian.

Namibia may be famous for producing the world's highest-quality diamonds, but it is not a country where giant gems routinely emerge from the earth. That makes a newly unveiled 176.29-carat natural diamond an especially remarkable find — and a glittering reminder that Namibia’s diamond story is built more on excellence than sheer size.



Named “Owishi,” the diamond was recovered by Namdeb at its Southern Coastal Mine in Oranjemund on May 10, 2026. The stone was officially unveiled September 30 by Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who described it as the largest diamond of its kind recovered at the operation in two decades.

The name adds a distinctly Namibian touch. “Owishi” is an Oshiwambo word for a rare form of honey found underground and notoriously difficult to locate — an apt description for a diamond that reflects such an unexpected discovery.

While neighboring Botswana is increasingly associated with spectacular 1,000-carat-plus discoveries, Namibia has carved out a different niche. It ranks eighth globally in diamond production volume and fifth in total production value, but its rough diamonds command the highest average value per carat of any producing country. In 2024, that figure was about $417 per carat, reflecting the exceptional gem quality of Namibian production.

That distinction helps explain why Owishi is so significant. A 176-carat diamond would be noteworthy anywhere, but in Namibia its size is especially unusual. Its ultimate value, however, won't be determined by carat weight alone. Industry estimates for the rough stone range from about $5 million to more than $25 million, depending on its clarity, color and the amount and quality of polished diamond it can yield. Namdeb has not announced whether the stone will be sold by auction, tender or another method.

For Namibia, Owishi represents more than a spectacular piece of rough. President Nandi-Ndaitwah emphasized the broader economic importance of the diamond industry, calling mining the country's “number one critical enabler” and noting that mineral wealth can generate revenue for education, healthcare, housing and infrastructure.

“May this discovery renew our commitment to ensuring that the wealth beneath our soil becomes a source of shared prosperity for all Namibians,” she said.

The President also urged Namibia to capture more value from its diamonds through domestic cutting, polishing and jewelry manufacturing.

Namdeb Diamond Corporation is part of Namdeb Holdings, a 50/50 partnership between the Government of the Republic of Namibia and De Beers Group. Its land-based operations are centered near Oranjemund and Namibia’s southwestern coast, where diamonds occur in deposits shaped by the region’s extraordinary geological and marine history.

Credit: Photo of Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah with the Owishi diamond via Facebook.com/Namibian Presidency.

A metal detector signal led to a remarkable discovery in a field near Wesseling, Germany: 934 Roman silver coins weighing 6.8 pounds (3.1 kilograms) and spanning nearly 300 years of Roman history. Unearthed by licensed amateur metal detectorist Oliver Riedl, the hoard is the largest collection of coins from the reign of Emperor Hadrian ever found in Germany and the fifth largest known worldwide from his era.



Riedl was searching the field when his detector began signaling. He dug up one silver coin, then another and another. After recovering 15 coins, however, the signals showed no sign of stopping.

“It was clear to me that there was something bigger buried here,” Riedl said.

He immediately contacted the authorities, allowing archaeologists from the Nideggen branch of the Rhineland Regional Association’s Office for Archaeological Heritage Management to take over the excavation. What followed far exceeded expectations. Rather than simply removing the coins one by one, archaeologists carefully lifted the surrounding block of soil and transported it to the restoration workshop at the LVR State Museum in Bonn.



There, specialists X-rayed the block before painstakingly separating it layer by layer. Their careful approach revealed fragments of the ceramic container that had originally held the treasure, along with remnants of straw used to line it. Centuries of agricultural activity had eventually broken apart the pot and scattered the coins through the surrounding soil, but the archaeological team was able to locate and recover all 934 denarii.

The oldest coin was minted in 148 BCE, during the Roman Republic. The youngest dates to 124 or 125 CE, during the reign of Hadrian, who ruled from 117 to 138 CE. Most of the coins date from the reigns of the Flavian emperors between 69 and 96 CE, including numerous coins bearing the profiles of emperors such as Domitian.

That extraordinary age range offers more than a glimpse at Roman history. It demonstrates that silver coins could remain useful as currency for generations. When the hoard was buried during the second quarter of the second century CE, the oldest coin was already more than 270 years old — yet apparently still considered valuable and valid for payment.

And it represented a considerable fortune. A typical Roman legionary earned about 300 denarii annually, with roughly half withheld for provisions and equipment. To accumulate 934 denarii, a soldier would have needed to save essentially all of his available income for about six years.

Why someone buried such a fortune and never returned for it remains unknown. Perhaps the owner was protecting savings in an era without modern banks, or perhaps circumstances prevented the treasure from ever being reclaimed.

The hoard was presented to the public in Bonn on September 22, coinciding with the annual meeting of the West and South German Association for Archaeology, which brought approximately 300 archaeologists from across Germany together in the city. Visitors can now see the remarkable silver collection at the LVR State Museum in Bonn — nearly 1,900 years after someone carefully hid it in the ground.

Credits: Images courtesy of ©Marcel Zanjani/LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage in the Rhineland.