Fridays Rock! - Lighting Ridge Black Opal

In my Mineral Mondays post I mentioned a surprise gem I found while shopping in Quartzite. Well here it is, a black opal from Lighting Ridge in Australia! Lightning Ridge is a town located in New South Whales, Western Australia and produces black opal, the most valuable kind of opal.

I was looking for some boulder opal at the show and one dealer had a bunch of different varieties of opal from Australia, so I stopped to took a look.

I was looking for some opal for my wife for her jewelry when I spotted the black opal. It was the only one in a sea of opals like the piece below.

I immediately bought it and the piece above. The dealer had no idea the black opal was in there and said if he had seen it he would have pulled it out and sold it by carat weight. You see black opal can cost as much as diamond. This piece has a small chip in it though so that decreases the price. The fire on it is good, but not the best. It is still a great find.

I paid $14 for the black opal and the other opal. The black opal weighs 1 carat and is valued around $50. Without the chip it would probably be worth 3x that.

I am thinking to polish it up and put it into a ring setting for myself. I don't have any jewelry that I wear, but I think it's about time to change that. It's an added bonus when the gem is one you found, even digging through a dealer's inventory.

If you'd like to know more about opal's 'fire" I've written about a few times in the past: https://steemit.com/fridaysrock/@rt395/friday-s-rock-oh-my-boulder-opal
https://steemit.com/science/@rt395/mineral-mondays-4-opal

That's it for Fridays Rock! I'll be back on Monday with Mineral Mondays. I have another new special gems I just got in from Canada. Really rare stuff so check back!