“The Lone Star”- Blue Sapphire

It is not known exactly what inspired the name “The Lone Star” for this massive blue star sapphire weighing 9,719.5 carats, discovered in the mountains of North Carolina in June, 1989, by Harold Roper, a resident of the small hamlet of Marble. Previously, the largest blue sapphire in the world was the 563.35-carat “Star of India”, a Sri Lankan gemstone owned by the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. In terms of weight “The Lone Star” is 17 times larger than its immediate rival, the “Star of India.” In this sense Harold Roper’s star sapphire is indeed a “Lone Star”, propelled to the coveted position of the largest blue sapphire and the largest blue star sapphire in the world, with no immediate prospect of a rival surfacing in the foreseeable future. The massive size of the blue star sapphire isolated it from the rest of the famous blue star sapphires in the world whose weights were around 500 carats and less, making the sensational stone an incomparable star sapphire among other star sapphires in the world, appropriately named “The Lone Star” sapphire.

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