If you don’t know much about opals, buying them can be a very trying task.
Below is a guide to buying opals which will hopefully help you make the right choice when buying opals
Pick a stone that you are drawn to! Each stone has an individual personality, just like people, so nobody can tell you what your opal should look like. Red on black is most valuable, but if you like blue, choose a blue stone!
Think about what you are going to be using the stone for. Shape and size is an important factor when considering the setting for jewellery. If you are buying a high quality stone, consider matching it with a high quality setting.
Brilliance - A brilliant stone is good, no matter the colour or body tone.
Colour - red is the most valuable, followed by orange, yellow, green, and then blue being the most common.
Certificates of Authenticity - always ask for a signed certificate of authenticity. Not only is it good for insurance and purposes, and re-sale value, you are also making the dealer accountable.
Black opals, boulder opals, & white opals - these are all different types of opals, the difference between them is that they are found in different parts of Australia, and each have very unique appearances and ways of forming.
- Black opals are considered the 'Rolls Royce' of opals, and have a high price attachment associated with their status and rarity. Black opals are often considered to be the best in the world.
- Boulder opals are the lesser known opal type, but they have equally stunning colour. The opal runs in thin veins on an ironstone backing (hence the dark colour), therefore the price is generally much less per carat due to the ironstone content of the stone.
Be cautious of people selling these opals at a price 'per carat', possibly leaving the heavy ironstone on the back of the stone. This is a shifty way of boosting the price of the stone. Boulder opals are the hardest of all opals due to their ironstone backing.
- White opals have a 'milky' white colour, and are very common. The white body tone often causes the colour to be less bright; however some of the most beautiful opals are often white.
- Crystal opals – Crystal opals refer to any type of opal with a transparent quality. This quality can add value to a stone when combined with good colour.
Learn as much as you can about opals so you know what you are getting when you buy opals
Before buying, figure out if you are buying a doublet, a triplet, or a solid opal
Solid opals are considered much better - a quality, long-term investment.
The entire time the Hungarian mines supplied Europe with opal, including a stone for the crown of a Roman Emperor, superstitions circulated attributing evil powers and maladies to the colourful stone. In the eleventh century, Bishop Marbode of Rennes wrote of opal, "...Yet 'tis the guardian of the thievish race; It gifts the bearer with acutest sight; But clouds all other eyes with thickest night." This is thought to be based on the idea that opal granted its bearer with invisibility, therefore it was a talisman for thieves, spies and robbers!
Opals were then sometimes associated with bad luck. One royal opal did bring terrible misfortune to the hapless goldsmith who broke it during setting. The unforgiving Louis XI ordered his hands cut off! It's no surprise that few of his colleagues thereafter had anything good to tell buyers about opal.
The saddest opal saga is the oft-repeated misconception in the last of Sir Walter Scott's novels, Anne of Geierstein (1829), which irrevocably linked opal to misfortune. Having not read the third volume, the public jumped to the conclusion that the heroine has been bewitched, that her magic opal discolours when touched by holy water, and that she dies as a result. On carefully examining the texts, Si Frazier, writing in Lapidary Journal, found all three accusations false. The opal, which actually belonged to Anne's exotic grandmother, turns out to have turned pale as a warning to its owner against poisoning (which was the actual cause of her grandmother's death). Even so, this single work plunged opal prices to half in just one year and crippled the European opal market for decades.
George F. Kunz, author of "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones", says, "There can be little doubt that much of the modern superstition regarding the supposed unlucky quality of the opal owes its origin to a careless reading of Sir Walter Scott's novel, 'Anne of Geierstein'. The wonderful tale... contains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to represent opal as unlucky."
Some maintain that diamond merchants of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries saw the amazing attributes of opal and realised that it was going to be a serious threat to their livelihood. Opal, with its stunning play of colour, was increasing in popularity and could represent a threat to the lucrative diamond trade now that it was being mined commercially. The story goes that diamond traders spread the belief that opals are bad luck to protect themselves and give opals a bad reputation.
Another contributing factor may be the fact that opals are a relatively fragile gemstone. Opals are a soft gemstone compared to diamonds, and can be broken if mis-treated or treated roughly. This may have contributed to an overall perception of opal as "bad luck".
In fact, in Roman times, the gem was carried as a good luck charm of talisman, as it was believed that the gem, like the rainbow, brought its owner good fortune. It was also referred to as the "Cupid Stone" because it suggested the clear complexion of the god of love.
Early races credited opal with magical qualities and traditionally, opal was said to aid its wearer in seeing limitless possibilities. It was believed to clarify by amplifying and mirroring feelings, buried emotions and desires. It was also thought to lessen inhibitions and promote spontaneity. The early Greeks believed the opal bestowed powers of foresight and prophecy upon its owner, while in Arabian folklore, it is said that the stone fell from heaven in flashes of lightning. To the Romans, it was considered to be a token of hope and purity.
In the 7th Century it was believed that opals possessed magical properties and centuries later Shakespeare was attributed with the description of opal as "that miracle and queen of gems". The Arabs believed that they fell from the sky, and the Oriental traditions referred to them as "the anchor of hope". Lucky opal - the stone of hope, the birthstone of October.
Some people believe that opal is bad luck... however, we believe it's bad luck if you don't have one! One person who would back us up is Harry Brukarz, who owned an opal shop at the corner of Martin Place and Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Harry won numerous lottery prizes in the 1940's and 1950's, and attributed his lottery winnings to "the luck of the opal". The major $120,000 (60,000 pound) prize he counted among his winnings represented a tidy fortune in itself.
Sources :
"Opals", by Fred Ward, Gem Book Publishers, 1997
"Australian Precious Opal", Andrew Cody, 1991.