Opal is one of the birthstones for October. It is a beautiful gemstone and is best known for its beautiful ‘play of colour’. The play of colour is a display of irridescent colours – blue, green, yellow and/or red – which change depending on the direction you hold the gemstone. The name is derived from the Latin word ‘opalus’ which translates as ‘precious stone’.
Used in jewellery for centuries, up until the beginning of the 20th century, the opals being mined and used for jewellery were either white opal (with a white and translucent to opaque body) or crystal opal (with a colorless, transparent body). Black opals were not readily available until 1903 when commercial mining of it started in Australia.
Pliny described the opal as displaying ‘the more subtle fires of the carbunculaus, the flashing purple of the amethyst and the sea-green tint of the smaragdus (emerald), all combined in incredible brilliance’ (Natural History, Book 37 https://www.attalus.org/pliny/hn37a.html). He thought that opals came from India but historically, opals were mined at the Slovakian village of Červenica-Dubník. They were known then as Hungarian opals but the area is now in Slovakia.
White opals and crystal opals may not be as striking in colour as black opals but they are still beautiful gemstones.
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