The diamond was discovered by William P. “Punch” Jones and his father, Grover C. Jones, Sr. while pitching horseshoes in April 1928. Believed to be simply a piece of shiny quartz common to the area, the stone was kept in a wooden cigar box inside a tool shed for fourteen years throughout the Great Depression. In 1942, Punch brought the stone to Roy J. Holden, a geology professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) – more commonly known as
Virginia Tech – in nearby
Blacksburg,
Virginia. Holden, shocked at Punch's discovery, authenticated the diamond and the diamond was sent to the
Smithsonian Institution where it remained for many years for display and safekeeping. In February 1964, the Jones family brought the diamond back and placed it in a
safe deposit box in the First Valley National Bank in
Rich Creek,
Virginia. In 1984, the Joneses auctioned the diamond through
Sotheby's auction house in New York to an agent representing a lawyer in an undisclosed east Asian country. == West Virginia State Historical Marker ==