Learn About Opals
Introduction
Australia is known as “The Lucky Country” and The “Noble Opal” is Australia’s lucky national gemstone.
Opal is also known as "The Queen of Gems"
Pliny the historian records that in the 1st century opal was worn into battle for protection by Roman soldiers.
Opal appears in the first chapter of Ezekiel in the bible in a description of God’s throne as being – “like a sapphire (black opal’s base colour) surrounded by a rainbow” which is an accurate description of the rainbow colours found in precious black opal. The Book of Revelations also describes God's throne as "surrounded by a rainbow like an emerald on a sea of glass like crystal" – a perfect description of crystal opal.
Pliny, the world’s first gemmologist, records that opal is the only gem with the red of ruby, the blue of sapphire, the green of emerald, and the purple of amethyst all scintillating in one magnificent gem. Australian Opal does the same thing as a rainbow except the water is stationary, trapped in a difraction grating inside the opal, rather than moving as rain does. Of course, a rainbow looks better with a black cloud behind it because the cloud kicks up the colours of the rainbow, so black opal can be compared to the rainbow with a black cloud behind it, while crystal opal can be compared to a rainbow in a clear sky, the black is always brighter! An Australian Opal displays a unique ‘play of colour’ a term which describes Australian Opal’s unique shifting of spectral hues.
It is alleged that in the 19th century, in reaction to the challenge presented by the new Australian opal to their masses of diamonds, De Beers purchased the only European opal mines, closed them down and claimed to jewellers: “All the good opal is mined out!” Until this time Opal (not diamond) was the engagement ring gem of choice. Diamonds have been outselling opals 5000 to one ever since as there is about 5000 times more diamonds than opal in the world! Precious opal is rare, precious diamond is not rare!
Learn more about Opals:
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