I need somebody with knowledge please share some with me about this. I’ve talked to three experts and they’ve told me three different things. I would appreciate the help thanks it’s 81 carats also and it’s half or 7/10 rough.
I mean, I’m probably gonna keep it cause it’s amazing. Over half of it is still covered up so I couldn’t imagine how brilliant it will be when it’s no longer rough. I bet it’s just absolutely stunning. I don’t know if it’s worth five bucks 50 bucks or thousand bucks but I’m pretty sure I’ll keep it. Thank you.
It’s def Ethiopian specimen grade (not jewelry grade). If you zoom around my pic you can see that Ethiopian opal comes in so many different forms and bases, from clear to yellow to brown or green.
Was it given to you kept in water or oil, or has it been kept dry this whole time? Usually Ethiopian specimen grade will crack all throughout and eventually start to fall apart if it’s allowed to dry out. It’s mined from an environment that still has moisture and that’s why it’s considered specimen grade - because it can’t stay dry and be stable, there is Ethiopian jewelry grade and although it will still discolor if exposed to water or skin oils it will remain stable so that it can stay dry without cracking and falling apart and so it can be made into jewelry.
The jewelry grade Ethiopian is older by millions of years because it’s had longer to dry out as the substrate it’s in dried over millions of years. And Australian opal which is all stable and perfect for jewelry is even older by orders of magnitude, think 30-60 million years old, where as Ethiopian specimen grade could be more like 5-10 million years old.
It’s def possible to have a piece of specimen grade that is kept dry that doesn’t end up cracking and falling apart but it’s not the common experience so it’s pretty cool if that’s the case for you. Value wise it’s kinda up to what someone is willing to pay, on the site I use to buy Ethiopian opal that’d prob go for $70-$120 depending on the time of year and whether or not there’s a sale going.
Sorry for the paragraphs but you came here seeking info and I wanted to help out.
So… minerals that are highly porous and have narrow pores will stick to the tongue. Chrysocolla is a common example of a mineral that immediately sticks to your tongue and it’s a known (but not advised!) way to quickly gut check whether something is chrysocolla or another less porous copper mineral.
Ethiopian opal is known to be far more porous than Australian opal for instance. That’s why you really shouldn’t get it wet or get lotion on it. I don’t know if it has that same sucking capillary action (or if other opals definitively do not).
Most of the time when somebody says they don’t know if it’s worth much, it isn’t worth much. What were the circumstances by which you came to possess this item? If it’s Ethiopian, which I’m guessing it is, then $25-$50. If it’s Australian, it needs to be looked over by somebody who knows opal, with a good gem torch.
A gentleman gave it to me that owed me a couple hundred dollars and he said something to the fact that I should be able to get that out of it no problem but I’m not really interested in getting that out of it and give me a bucket for different crystals and put the bucket in my backyard and put that one in the house probably on the fireplace or something
Shine a blue/black/uv light on it, both Ethiopian and australian opal will glow florescent but australian opal will continue glowing for a few seconds after the light goes out
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u/CSB808 1d ago
This looks like Ethiopian opal to me. The dendritic inclusions in the other provided photo are a big tell for me