The Molten Crown, Persia 1749

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Game of Thrones S1 E6, A Golden Crown

A drunk Viserys Targaryen storms into Khal Drogo's hall on the day of a ritual ceremony for Daenerys' unborn child. Viserys wields a sword  and offends the Dothraki as blades are forbidden in the sacred city of Vaes Dothrak, as is spilling blood. Viserys demands that Khal Drogo gives him his promised crown and threatens the unborn child of the Khal and Daenerys. Drogo has his bloodriders seize Viserys and melts down his own belt of golden medallions. The molten gold is poured on Viserys as Khal Drogo bloodlessly crowns the beggar king.

Persia, 1749.

There are legends surrounding the genesis of the infamous Kohinoor diamond. The established myth is that it was extracted from the mines of Kollur. It appears in the 5000 year old Hindu Purana scriptures as the Syamantaka diamond. As a warning most of the early Hindu texts consider diamonds ominous and a source of impending violence. Historically India was the world's only source of diamonds till the discovery of diamond mines in Brazil in 1725.

The earliest historical reference to the Kohinoor appears around 1739 when the Persian megalomaniacal war-monger Nader Shah invaded Delhi, ransacked the Mughal treasury, burnt the city to the ground and helped himself to the Peacock Throne which was originally built in 1628 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan. The throne - the construction of which took 7 years and cost more than 4 times that of building the Taj Mahal - is dismantled and sent back to Persia and as a symbol of his kingship Nadir Shah wears two diamonds on his arms. One if the Timur Ruby and the other is a massive uncut stone called the 'mountain of light' or the Kohinoor. It is on this occasion that the Kohinoor is first mentioned in recorded history.

Ten years later Nader Shah is assassinated by his own soldiers; and in one of the subsequent battles for succession his grandson Shahrokh Shah is blinded and loses the throne. He reclaims it but his rule is circumscribed to the province of Khorasan in Persia. The Qajar ruler Agha Mohammed Shah then forces Shahrokh Shah to give up his grandfather's riches. Shahrokh is tortured by having molten gold poured over his head; he eventually confesses. Unfortunately by then the Kohinoor had been commandeered by one Ahmed Shah Durrani who had left Persia. Ahmed Shah Durrani would go on to establish his own empire and he is regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan. 

References

1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin

2. A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin

3. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin

4. Kohinoor - William Dalrymple & Anita Anand