Dulip Singh who was now living in London, under the guardianship of Lady Login, was one of the first persons to be shown the Koh-i-Noor in it's new shape. This was on the initiative of Queen Victoria herself, when the Prince visited the Buckingham Palace, for sittings for a portrait of himself, being made by the palace. But, before doing so, the Queen verified from Lady Login that the Prince had no regrets or worries about the loss of the diamond, and that he would be interested in seeing the stone in it's re-cut form. The Queen herself walked up to the Maharajah who was posing on a Dais, and handed over the Koh-i-Noor to him for his inspection. After he had finished his inspection, Dulip Singh walked across the room, and with a low bow expressed in a few graceful words the pleasure it gave him to have the opportunity of placing the stone in her hands.
However the worries over the supposed bad luck which the Koh-i-Noor would bring to it's owner refused to die down and this led Lord Dalhousie to write his most extended letter refuting the claim.
"The rumor you mention as to the Koh-i-Noor, I have seen in former years in an English Paper, but never anywhere else. It is not only contrary to fact but contrary to native statements also. Did the Koh-i-Noor bring ill luck to the great Akbar, or to his own son or grandson ? or to Aurangzeb, who rose to be the Great Mogul Emperor ? And when that race of emperors fell - not from the ill-fortune of the Koh-i-noor, but from their feeble hand - did it bring ill-fortune to Nadir Shah, who lived and died the the greatest eastern conqueror of modern times ? or to Ahmed Shah Durrani, who got it at Nadir's death, and founded the Afghan Empire ? or did it bring ill fortune to Ranjit Singh, who got it from the Durrani's, and who rose from being a sower on twenty rupees a month at Goojeranwalla to be the Maharajah of the Punjab, swaying the greatest force in India next to ourselves ? And has it brought ill-luck to the Queen ? Especially, representing the Punjab, has it shown that state an enemy to us ? Has it not on the contrary, shown it our fastest friend, by whose aid we have just put down the traitors of our own household. So much for the facts of history as to the Koh-i-Noor. Now for the estimation in which it's former owners hold it. When Ranjit Singh seized it from Shah Shoja, the Durrani Emperor, he was very anxious to ascertain it's value. he sent the diamond to merchants in Amritsar, but they said it's value could not be estimated in money. He then asked Begum Shah, the wife of Shah Shoja, and her answer was thus, "If a strong man should take five stones, and should cast them, one east, one west, one north, and one south, and the last straight up in the air, and if all the space between those points were filled with gold and gems, that would not equal the value of the Koh-i-Noor." Ranjit Singh thought that this was a rather vague estimate, and requested for Shah Shoja's opinion. The old man's answer was :-"The value of the Koh-i-Noor is that whoever holds it is victorious over all his enemies." And so it is. The Koh-i-Noor has been of ill fortune to the few who have lost it. To the long line of Emperors, Conquerors, and Potentates, who through successive centuries have possessed it , it has been the symbol of victory and empire. and sure never more than to our Queen, ever since she wore it, and at this moment. However if her Majesty thinks it brings bad luck to her, let her give it back to me. I will take it and it's ill-luck as speculation."
Queen Victoria seems to have been convinced by this last letter of Lord Dalhousie, that she decided to keep the diamond, and in 1853, ordered the Crown Jewelers, Garrards to mount the gem on a tiara for the Queen, which they did, and turned out a magnificent tiara containing more than two thousand diamonds, with the Koh-i-Noor as the centerpiece. Five years later in 1858, Queen Victoria ordered a new regal circlet for the Koh-i-Noor, which was delivered the following year.
In 1911, Garrards made a new crown for the coronation of Queen Mary, the Queen Consort of King George V. The crown contained only diamonds and the Koh-i-Noor was also included.
Again in 1937, the Koh-i-Noor was incorporated in a new crown made for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen consort of King George VI, which was based on Queen Victoria's regal circlet. the Koh-i-Noor was set in the Maltese Cross at the front of the crown.
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