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Murfreesboro, AR—A lucky couple digging at the Crater of Diamonds State Park found more than they expected for an afternoon’s outing—about $21,000 more. Melissa and Kenny Oliver, who live in the state, found a 2.44-ct. piece of remarkably clean rough that, when cut, yielded a 1.06-ct. pear-shaped diamond, shown left. Christened the Silver Moon, the finished diamond is almost perfect, and is valued at $21,000.

Bill Underwood of Underwood’s Fine Jewelry in Fayetteville, AR, appraised the stone and said the diamond is close to the best that’s ever come out of the park. The best, he said, was the Strawn-Wagner diamond, an AGS Triple Zero, or a GIA D IF—and the first to receive the 000 grade. That stone, found in 1997, is now on permanent display at the park after the state of Arkansas mounted a campaign to raise funds to buy it. Other notable stones from the mine include the 40.23-ct. Uncle Sam, found in 1924 and to date the largest diamond ever found in North America; and the Kahn Canary, an uncut fancy yellow that is naturally flawless. The Kahn Canary was found by George Strepp in 1977, then bought and named by Stanley Kahn of the former Kahn’s Jewelers in Pine Bluff, and set in a Henry Dunay “Cynnabar” ring worn by Hillary Clinton for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

An AGS Certified Gemologist Appraiser, Underwood helped get the Silver Moon diamond cut, a process that took about six weeks. It was cut in New York but the name of the firm that did the cutting is confidential.

“It’s a beautiful diamond, lots of brilliance and sparkle,” said Underwood. It finished to about an F color, VS2, with an AGS cut grade of 1, he told The Centurion.

The 2.44-ct. Silver Moon rough, shown here, finished out to the 1.06-ct. F VS2 stone shown at the top of the page.

Lots of people dig at the Crater of Diamonds, explained Underwood. In fact, he says, many will go back several days a week, or bring an RV and camp out and dig for days, hoping to strike it rich.

The park churns up about the first four or five feet of earth, and allows diggers to go down to eight feet. “It’s a real mine. It’s never been commercially productive enough to be anything but a tourist attraction, but it has a legitimate blue [kimberlite] pipe and it is a real mine,” says Underwood. The mine is located just outside Murfreesboro, a small town in west-central Arkansas, and, until mines were discovered in Canada at the end of the 20^th century, it was the only legitimate diamond mine in North America, and to date it still is the only known diamond mine within the United States.

This isn’t the first diamond from the mine that Underwood has gotten cut, but they are rare. Most are too small (or too flawed) to cut. The yield isn’t enough, added Craig Underwood.

After viewing the Silver Moon’s proportions, Bill Underwood determined a pear was the best shape for the piece of rough, and he sent it to New York to be cut. The look on the couple’s face when he unwrapped the finished stone was “priceless,” he said. They’ve taken the stone back to the Crater, hoping to be able to sell it.

Although Underwood isn’t acting as an agent for the sale of the stone, he’s gotten a lot of publicity around it. The local TV station, KFSM, filmed an interview in the store, and then sent it out to CNN, where it’s been seen around the country.

Watch him in this newscast from CNN.com.