The following is to illustrate certain artifacts with opals and to provide some general and technical information about them. There are more varieties than you typically see in most retailers, and there are a lot of synthetics out there. There are also a lot of doublets and triplets on the market.
While either a synthetic, triplet or doublet might be attractive and affordable to many, they are not naturally. What’s worse is that most people don’t know the difference, and some entities will sell certain items without disclosing and explaining what these things mean. That’s the bad part. The other bad news is, if you want something natural, and good, anymore you’re going to pay for it if it’s of quality and pending the size and specifics.
Natural opals anymore have become quite expensive pending on the exact type. Yes, there is more than one type of opal. Pending what kind of opal it is, and it’s particulars, you will pay more or less for it. They were quite popular during the 1980’s as they have a myriad of colors which fit into the outrageous trends of the time. So suddenly they became popular, and they were relatively more affordable than they are now. The demand increased, the mines in Australia are simply not producing as much material. The strength in the Aussie dollar against the US dollar forced a doubling in the prices alone, so something had to give. That something was the quality and the rise of synthetics with the exception of certain higher end jewelers.
I’ve always been a fan of the more unusual stones, and things you don’t ordinarily see. The illustration below is a natural opal showing no evidence of enhancements that was purchased from AJS Gems. This is a 0.97 carat trillion cabochon magnified 45x.
