Opal

The vast majority of opal is known as common opal, that is, opal without any fire. Opal has to be stable and have nice fire to be considered precious opal. Only a very small portion of naturally occurring opal can be considered gem quality. Quality opal is very expensive, made more so by the caution that must be exercised in cutting, polishing, and setting it into jewelry.

History of the opal goes back to the dawn of time. Opal was adored by the ancient Romans some 200 years before Christ. Pliny, the Roman historian, described the opal in glowing terms "...for in them you shall see the living fire of the ruby, the glorious purple of the amethyst, the sea green of the emerald, all glittering together in an incredible mixture of light." The roman senator, Nonius, owned a beautiful opal that Mark Anthony so dearly wanted to buy as a gift for his lover, Cleopatra. Under the threat of death to sell, he preferred to exile rather than part with his precious gem.

The beliefs and ideas surrounding opals were many and varied. Arabians believed they were magical stones that had fallen from the heavens in a flash of fiery lightning. Orientals believed them to be an anchor stone of hope. Some medieval Europeans attributed them strange powers such as to make the wearer invisible and to give great insight. Ancient monarchs treasured opals, both for their beauty and for their presumed protective powers. They were set into crowns and worn in necklaces to ward off evil and to protect the eyesight.

Peruvian opal is available in faint pink, light blue and light minty green tones. These opals are relatively rare and found in the Andes Mountains near San Patricio, Peru. Although native South Americans have been using the stone for more than a thousand years, it only became widely available commercially within the last decade or so. Peruvian opal is usually translucent to opaque with no play of color and often with lots of black and tan dendrites. 

A gift of opal is symbolic of faithfulness and confidence.  

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If you ask a jeweler or a gemologist whether there is a difference between a precious stone and a semi-precious one, they are likely to answer "yes." But if you ask them to describe the difference, their answer will most likely be less precise because there is no clear definition of the distinction-either in the law or in the industry itself.

 An area of total agreement on the precious/semi-precious question is that diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires are all considered to be precious stones. Besides these "big four," it is a matter of interpretation, with opinions and judgments influenced mainly by scarcity and use of the stone. The perceived value of gems is often directly related to how difficult they are to obtain. For example, amethysts were once considered precious. When miners began to find vast amounts of these purple stones in South America, amethysts lost their luster. They are no less beautiful, but because they are no longer scarce, amethysts are now considered semi-precious stones. Just as important as the scarcity of a gem is how that gem is used. Cultural and religious beliefs instill more meaning in some stones than others and so these stones are perceived as more valuable. A flawless diamond is certainly pretty and definitely rare, but it is "precious" mostly because people agree that it is precious. A flawless Paraiba tourmaline, on the other hand, is incredibly rare and worth tens of thousands of dollars per carat, but it is still classified as a semi-precious stone because people just do not see it as "precious."  

The muddiness of the precious/semi-precious distinction becomes clear when pricing gems. A high quality piece of topaz, like the Paraiba tourmaline, will cost significantly more than a low quality diamond of the same size, yet the topaz will always be considered semi-precious. No legally enforceable distinction exists between precious and semi-precious gemstones.

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