There are many accounts in the Bible of objects being used by people to accomplish their divinely-appointed tasks. In Genesis, Joseph of Egypt used a silver cup to divine information (Genesis 44:5, 15). Moses was commanded by God to throw Aaron’s staff or rod to the ground in Pharaoh’s court, which became a snake. The magicians of Pharaoh also made snakes out of rods, but Aaron’s snake ate the magician’s snakes (Exodus 7:9-12). When the Israelites were plagued with serpents, Moses was commanded by the Lord to make a brass serpent and set it on a pole. The people only had to look at the brass serpent and they would be healed from the serpents’ bites (Numbers 21:6-9). The high priest of Israel wore a Urim and Thummim, which helped him to interpret the will of God. The Bible records many other instances of physical objects being used to accomplish God’s purposes.

After the Children of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, the Mosaic law was put in place. The role of Aaronic priests was defined. The high priest was told to make special clothing to administer the Aaronic priesthood covenants. One item of special clothing was a breastplate. As part of the breastplate, the high priest wore something called the Urim and Thummim. Urim and Thummim is a Hebrew phrase meaning “lights and perfections” or “lights and truth.” Many biblical scholars agree that the Urim and Thummim were used to receive revelation or interpret events. There are various biblical accounts where the Urim and Thummim were used by prophets to receive revelation. One of these accounts is in Numbers 27, where Moses asks the High Priest Eleazar to confirm to the people that Joshua was chosen by God to be the next leader of the Israelites. It should be noted that in the Mormon canon of scripture, there was also a Urim and Thummim used by Book of Mormon prophets. These prophets used the Urim and Thummim for revelatory purposes, but more specifically for translation purposes.

How Joseph Smith found his first seer stone is unclear. The two most common accounts relate that Smith found his first seer stone near Lake Erie or that he found it buried deep in the ground, possibly while digging a well. After Joseph Smith found this stone, he used it to search for lost items and treasure.

Joseph Smith reported that while he was praying one evening, an angelic messenger appeared to him in his room. The visitor identified himself as Moroni (the last prophet of the Book of Mormon). Moroni told Smith that he (Smith) was being called by God to receive an ancient record of the inhabitants of the Americas, which contained the complete gospel of Jesus Christ. Moroni also told Smith about an object that was buried with the record, which was prepared for the purpose of translation. It was described as “two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim.”

By 1826 Joseph Smith had at least two seer stones. One was a two-toned brown and black stone made from iron-banded jasper. It is often referred to as the chocolate seer stone. The second stone Smith possessed was white, or clear, in color. According to Martin Harris, Smith was commanded by an angel to stop treasure-seeking, or money-digging, with his seer stones. Harris stated that Smith listened to the angel and quit these practices by 1826.

Joseph Smith reported that on his first visit to see the record that was called the Book of Mormon, his thoughts were focused on its monetary value. The angel appeared to him and denied him access to the record, which was written on gold plates, because of his greedy thoughts. Smith was told by the angel that he would need to return to the same place every year, on the same date, for four years. In September 1827, after returning every year, Smith received the Book of Mormon and the Nephite interpreters, which were described as two white stones “which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.” (Mosiah 18:23) These items were also referred to as “spectacles” or the “Urim and Thummim” by Smith and his contemporaries.

Joseph Smith wrote a letter that was included as the introduction to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. In this introduction, Smith stated, “I translated [the Book of Mormon], by the gift and power of God.” Smith never personally elaborated or recorded anything else about his methodology for translating the record that was printed as the Book of Mormon.

According to Joseph Smith’s history, which was written in 1838, the angel Moroni collected the record of the Nephites and the Urim and Thummim sometime after Smith was done translating the record in 1829. Joseph Smith’s account of this is published in the scriptural canon of the LDS Church and is called Joseph Smith–History (Joseph Smith-History 1:60).

Details about the Book of Mormon’s translation can be found in numerous accounts from various witnesses [cite Opening the Heavens]. The majority of these come from those most closely connected to the translation, including Emma Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. On one occasion, Emma said that Smith translated while “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.” David Whitmer gave interviews and wrote many times concerning the translation of the Book of Mormon. In Chicago Inter-Ocean, Whitmer wrote that Smith used both the Urim and Thummim (spectacles) and the chocolate seer stone. Whitmer wrote, like Smith, that “the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man…” Martin Harris said that Smith “possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience, he then used the seer stone.” Oliver Cowdery wrote of the experience “Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’”

According to David Whitmer, Joseph addressed a group including Oliver Cowdery, and said that he didn’t need his seer stones for translation or to communicate with God anymore. Smith gave Cowdery his chocolate-colored seer stone.

According to multiple historical sources, Joseph Smith used the terms Urim and Thummim to refer to all the objects that he used for the translation of the record of the Book of Mormon. These objects included the Urim and Thummim (Nephite translators, spectacles) and Smith’s seer stones.

Sometime after Oliver Cowdery’s death, Cowdery’s widow gave Joseph Smith’s chocolate seer stone to Phineas Young, the brother of Brigham Young. Phineas gave the seer stone to Brigham Young.

Zina Diantha Huntington Young was one of Brigham Young’s wives. She inherited the chocolate seer stone from Brigham Young after his death. Zina was called to be the head of the Mormon Church’s women’s organization, the Relief Society from April 8, 1888, to August 28, 1901. Sometime during the years she served as Relief Society General President, she donated the chocolate seer stone to the Church.

The LDS Church has been in possession of the chocolate seer stone since it was donated to the Church in the late 1800s by Zina Diantha Huntington Young. The first photos of the seer stone were published in a Mormon Church magazine in 2015.