Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Mark Knopfler scores a “beautiful find” in his 2006 release, “I Dug Up a Diamond.” When taken literally, the song written by Knopfler is about a diamond miner who makes an unbelievable discovery. Metaphorically, “I Dug Up a …

Millennial shoppers will have diamond jewelry on their minds this holiday season thanks, in part, to a huge marketing push by the De Beers Group, which is set to spend $140 million by the end of the year. The budget is its biggest since 2008. For those of you unfamiliar with De Beers, these are the same folks who introduced …

The picturesque town of San Marco dei Cavoti in southern Italy is now world famous for two things: 1) the delightful honey-and-nut confection known as torrone and 2) a diamond engagement ring that was miraculously liberated from a gap in one of its sidewalks — nine years after it was lost. In the summer of 2008, New Jersey natives Margaret …

In 1926, at the age of 53, American tycoon Harrison Williams married Mona Bush, a divorcée 24 years his junior. Aboard his 250-foot yacht, the Warrior, the couple departed on a year-long, around-the-world honeymoon, and during a stopover in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), the wealthiest man in America picked up a beautiful cornflower blue bauble for his new bride. That …

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the heartthrob boy band NSYNC compares gemstones to a very special woman in 1999’s “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You.” They croon, “In all of creation, all things great and small / You are …

Former Apollo astronaut Charles “Charlie” Moss Duke Jr. loves to tell the story about how fellow astronaut Ken Mattingly nearly lost his wedding ring in outer space. The circumstances surrounding how he got it back are so remarkable that the story has attained folklore status in the annals of space exploration. According to Duke, on the second day of the …

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City is about to close the lid on its fully functional 18-karat gold toilet, with the final flush taking place on September 15. Called “America,” the single work of art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has dazzled and delighted museum-goers for the past year. The installation features a solid gold replica of …

Artie the Police Dog used his super sniffer to locate an engagement diamond for a New England couple — four days after it was lost. About two weeks ago, Jamie and James Ruddock of Sunderland, Mass., visited a nearby kennel to pick up one of their dogs, but as they were leaving the facility, Jamie noticed that the diamond from …

When professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated UFC star Conor McGregor by TKO Saturday night in what was billed as “the fight of the century,” the undefeated Mayweather earned a $100 million-plus payday and a Money Belt glistening with 4,260 gemstones. It is believed to be the most valuable sports trophy ever created. World Boxing Council (WBC) president Mauricio Sulaiman …

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, singer-songwriter Maia Sharp ponders the question: “How much gold can you find if you never go mining?” in “Underneath,” an intimate, self-effacing song about a woman who’s been unlucky in love. Sharp uses the mining simile to illustrate …