Opal pricing grading guide for opal gemstones.
Opal pricing grading Australian crystal opal best crystal gemstone’s in the world by far. Australian opals have many grades A grade crystal B grade C grade D grade found in 3 States. 1/New South Wales 2/Queensland 3/South Australian, black opal the most amazing quality an expensive opal gemstones of all. Today most crystal opal come’s from the Country of Ethiopia at the place named Wollo, lots of guys mining brown and crystal with light colors. The mines produce just a small amount of B grade stones, lots of C grade along with D also. Wollo Ethiopia play of color is not A grade play of color. Mines producing large amount’s of C grade D grade play of color. Light colors lots of orange and green with low fire on pattern grade’s C grade D grade,”but A+ good domed cabs”unfortunately a lot of Ethiopia is notoriously unstable.
Information about buying stones.
Australia was the main source of stones about 95% of all opals come from the remote deserts in 3 states of Australian the hardness is 6.5 to 5.5 and is the most expensive opal stone of all. Opals are found in the Country’s of Indonesia and Honduras also Czechoslovakia, Peru and in the Country of Mexico, Brazil and in the USA .
Opal pricing grading information.
Since about the year 2000 South Australian crystal and white opals have not been producing a lot of stones. New Corcoran rush around Lightning Ridge and around 1990s had lots of A grade black stones, but not a lot of opal is produced around Lightning Ridge today , Ethiopia producing lots of crystal in the recent years from about 2007 the country of Ethiopia has produced the greatest quantity of crystal that is on the market today about 80% .
semi precious stones.
A grade Black N1 N2 body tone gemstone from Australia only found around 100 kilometers the Township of Lightning Ridge Australian,good grade stones exhibits the phenomenon known as play-of-color, produced by the diffraction of white light through a micro-structure of orderly arrayed silica spheres to produce changing spectral hues. Common stones do not exhibit a play-of-color. The distinction between common stones and porch is based on formation and structure. Porch is structurally similar to precious opal but has a disorderly arrangement of silica spheres, shows some degree of micro crystallinity.
The first British and European prospectors pioneers explores that heard about the rare multicolor that sparkled dazzling red fire from rocks and stones, travelled to these locations and started the first opal mining fields. Hard men it was all blood sweat and tears in the semi-arid deserts no fresh water most of the year, stinking hot summers and cold winters, all backbreaking work by hand. No machinery, candle lighting shovels and picks and a hand held windless to wind up a bucket of clay from the bottom of the shaft. A cable was connected to the bucket back to the handheld windless that have to be rotated 360° many times by manpower to allow the bucket to come to the surface under intense heat.
Samples of Ethiopia black opal is submitted to labs all around the world prior to purchasing, labs testing is not cheap,Ethiopia and Indonesian material similar hydroplane crystal.
Opal pricing grading.
save your money Ethiopia black has all been darkened with smoke processor dyed black and green 100 %. “there is no black opal from Ethiopia. If a Lab understand black opal then they should tell their customers there is no such thing as black opal being produced in the country of Ethiopia.
Opals first mined around 4000 B. C. in Ethiopia, their popularity did not start until the Romans loved them around 100 B. C. By then, the majority of stone were mined in Hungary. For over a 1,000 years Hungary supplied European rulers and churchmen with the treasure of opals. At the same time, Australian gemstones appeared in the market, buyer sellers were hesitant because the Australian stones had much more fire brilliant and some assumed they were not gemstones. Elizabethan England, opal stone was treasured. Shakespeare Twelfth Night as the queen of gems.
Do not buy and not test Ethiopia black opals, labs tests with infrared spectroscopy FTIR xray fluorescence ED-XRF can some times not be clear. Test your self this is easily and save your money you just buy 2 cheap stones put 2 opals in a glass of methylated spirits and as this is a clear liquid and 24 hours later you should start to see the dark residue seeping in to the liquid darkening the liquid. Another test is easily but save your money with a 10 diamond loop you will often see in hands treatments in the fine polishing scratches particularly under the back of the stone, darker scratches are darker because the residue show up in the scratches .
Opal pricing grading information when buying .
Wholesale prices direct from our Australian opal mine, Free of charge when purchasing stones over $199 Custom jewelry design made free, but it is the beauty of this gem that makes it appreciate and there never is two opals the same. We have the only mine leased listed on State Heritage Register List as an item of environmental heritage in LEP National Trust of Australia Register. Black opal is the rarest and most desirable color of opal, as a dark body color sets off an opal’s play of color more dramatically Australian, and is the most expensive opal stone of all. Black opal N1-N2-N3 A grade B grade C grade D grade E is only find in areas around 100 kilometres around the town of Lightning Ridge NSW Australia.
First Australian’s have been dated back to around 40,000 years, prior the first European arrival in Australia in 1770, the many aboriginal indigenous tribes are very tall very dark skin people that hunted naked, their theory ,Dreamtime Legend . Numerous legends and tales surround this colorful gemstone, which can be traced back in its origins to a time,ancient lost time of the first Australian. Their legends God came down to Australian on a rainbow, to bring peace to all the indigenous tribes, where God touched the ground, the opal became alive and all the colors of the rainbow spectrum,iridescent multicolors,light green-dark green of jade and the dark blue-light blue of sapphires,red color spindle gemstone, topaz beautiful blue , the pink color of tourmaline, opal crystals colors as clear as diamonds and can have all these colors yellow, and the exotic black opal,green colors like emerald, red garnets, white pearls,dark pigeon red ruby’s,superlative brilliance multicolors fire sparkling rainbow, the dreamtime legend it was the birth of gemstones.
Honduran opal dark body tone color, play of color C grade D grade E crystal F grade G grade only, pattern D grade E crystal F grade G grade opaque appearance matrix opal most is low grade. Dark and gray opal is mined in Mintabie in South Australia N4 N5 N6. Indonesia produces a very small amount of dark opal grade brownish color, I hope this free opal pricing grading information will help you.