During her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II wore a lot of jewelry that people will remember, but the Cullinan III and IV brooch was the most beautiful. The amazing jewelry piece has two stones cut from the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, which was found in South Africa in 1905 and is the world’s largest diamond.
The late queen inherited the platinum-set brooches from her grandmother, Queen Mary. She called them “Granny’s Chips” out of affection. The word “chips” refers to the way the diamonds are cut from the original stone. It wasn’t worn as often as the heart-shaped Cullinan V brooch, but when she did, its size and shine made it stand out.
The Royal Collection Trust (RCT) says that Queen Mary had the two diamonds set into her crown for her coronation in 1911. Elizabeth, on the other hand, wore them as brooches more than once. When she became queen 60 years ago in 2012, which is known as her “Diamond Jubilee,” she wore them. The brooch showed up again six years later when Elizabeth wore it to a state dinner with the king and queen of the Netherlands. She pinned it to her sash.
After the queen died in 2022, the Cullinan III and IV were used in Queen Camilla’s coronation crown the next year. The crown was originally used for Queen Mary’s coronation in 1911, according to the RCT. The crown has copies of the Cullinan III, IV, and V stones so that they can be worn as brooches when this event is over.
Find out everything you need to know about the beautiful Cullinan III and IV brooch that Queen Elizabeth loves.
Queen Mary received the Cullinan III and IV in 1910.
The RCT says that the original Cullinan diamond was cut into nine whole diamonds. It was 1909 when Cullinan I and II were given to King Edward. They later became a part of the Sovereign’s Scepter and the Imperial State Crown. Joseph Asscher, of the Royal Asscher jewelers in the Netherlands, kept the other stones. He was the one who cut the Cullinan. When the South African government bought them, they were given to Queen Mary in 1910.
According to the RCT, Mary sometimes set the diamonds in Queen Victoria’s collar necklace to replace the Lahore Diamond when she wasn’t wearing them in her coronation crown. They can be worn together or separately today that they are set in platinum. However, Queen Elizabeth often hooked them together into a single brooch.
The pair of diamonds have an estimated worth of between £50 and £180 million
Diamond Institute of America says that Cullinan III is 94.40 carats and shaped like a pear, and Cullinan IV is 63.60 carats and shaped like a square cushion. It’s hard to say how much they’re worth because similar items don’t come up for auction very often. Steven Stone, a jeweler, put a price of £50 million on the whole brooch. The diamonds could be worth more than £180 million, according to The Guardian in 2023. They were set in “what is probably the most valuable brooch in the world.” In 2025, that would be worth more than $200 million.
Queen Elizabeth wore the brooch on a select few occasions.
With such a large jewelry collection, it makes sense that different pieces took turns being the center of attention. The Cullinan III, IV, and V were given to Elizabeth by her grandmother Mary when she died in 1953.
The queen wore the Cullinan III and IV brooch for the first time on record in 1958, when she went on an official trip to the Netherlands. She met Joseph Asscher’s brother Louis there. Joseph had cut the Cullinan 50 years before. The Royal Asscher website says that she gave him the chance to hold the diamonds, and Louis “was deeply moved by the Monarch’s gesture.”
The brooch also made an important appearance at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 and at a state banquet in 2018 to welcome King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
Queen Camilla included both the Cullinan III and Cullinan IV in her coronation crown.
The RCT says that Queen Camilla wore a crown that was first made in 1911 for Queen Mary’s coronation at her own coronation in 2023. The base band has Cullinan IV in the middle, and the crown has Cullinan III in the middle of the cross. Besides being crowned herself, Queen Mary also wore the crown when her son, King George VI, was crowned in 1937. They are taken off the crown when it’s not being worn so that they can be worn as a brooch.
Queen Camilla hasn’t worn the Cullinan III and IV diamonds since she became queen, but she did wear the heart-shaped Cullinan V brooch to the Royal Ascot in 2025 and to a garden party in 2024.
