Word: venter
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...rocked in hand sieves and dumped on sorting tables. The diggers (who will pay De Beers 10% of their finds) were a mixed lot. Among them were a monocled Scot known as "Donal the Duke"; bearded, Bible-carrying "Uncle Pete the Sky Pilot," and big, burly, sombrero-wearing Jacob Venter, 51, who has spent half his life looking for diamonds...
...last week, Venter's Negro laborer Mannetjie called excitedly to his boss, held up a yellow diamond the size of a pigeon's egg. The diamond diggers crowded around, passed it from hand to hand. The stone was a "Cape yellow" weighing 511¼ carats, a nearly perfect octahedron and one of the biggest diamonds ever found in South Africa.* Next day Venter sold it for $51,100. Mannetjie's cut: $280. While other prospectors feverishly dug away in Nooitgedacht, Venter said merely: "Man, I been smiling so much it hurts...