The gem was first discovered in 1938 by 12 year old Roy Spencer, who found the stone in a nearby hillside in Queensland, Australia.

In 1947, Armenian-born, Los Angeles-based jeweler Harry Kazanjian visited the Spencer family and took interest in the stone.

Kazanjian spent two months studying the stone before making the decision to cut it, sacrificing over 400 carats to reveal the six-pointed star.

[1] The gemstone was loaned to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., in 1969, and in 1971 it received some brief television fame when the stone featured around the neck of Cher.

A lengthy, controversial and bitter international ownership battle between Armstrong and Grohe ensued, marked by the New York Post which ran a story with the headline "Heavyweight Gem $cuffle".