On this date in 1986, the largest rough black opal was found in Lightning Ridge, Australia by the Lunatic Hill Mining Syndicate. It was named the Halley's Comet Opal as Halley's Comet was visible that year. It’s about the size of a man’s fist and was on sale in 2006 for $1.2 million. 10 facts about opals.
Halley’s Comet isn’t the largest ever, just the largest existing Black one. The Olympic Australis opal is the largest at 280 mm long, 120 mm thick, and 115 mm wide and was found in Coober Pedy in 1956. The Olympic Games took place in Melbourne that year, hence the name. The world’s most expensive opal is the Virgin Rainbow, valued at over $1,000,000. It was discovered in Australia in 2003 by John Dunstan in the skeleton of a Belemnite, an ancient ancestor of the cuttlefish.
Opinions are divided on the origin of the word opal. Some believe it to be derived from the Sanskrit word for 'jewel', while others think it comes from the ancient Greek word opallios, which can either mean “seeing” (the word opaque comes from this root), or "other" as in "alias" and "alter".
The stone is made from silica and water and can be found in the crevices and cracks of virtually any rock, although most commonly in limonite, sandstone and basalt. It is considered a mineraloid rather than a crystal, as are obsidian, amber and Pearl, because its atoms are not arranged at regular intervals.
Australia mines over 95% of the world’s precious opals, and so the opal is the national gemstone of Australia. There’s a myth there which tells of an ancestral being who rode to Earth on a Rainbow, and where the rainbow touched the ground, all the pebbles and stones turned to opals.
In the Middle Ages, opals were considered lucky because they contained all the colours of other gems and therefore had all their virtues. Opals were believed to grant the wearer the ability to become invisible, resulting in the opal being the patron gemstone for thieves. Another of its powers was to preserve the colour of blonde hair.
Later on, however, opals became known for bad luck and were associated with death. This superstition is a direct result of a book by Sir Walter Scott called Anne of Geierstein, published in 1829. In this story, the Baroness of Arnheim wears an opal talisman with supernatural powers. A drop of holy water falls on it, and the opal turns into a colourless stone, and the Baroness dies.
Opal is the birth stone for people born in October. The superstition that it’s unlucky for a person born in any other month to wear one also derives from Scott’s novel.
Other opal superstitions include a Russian one that they embodied the evil eye, and so if one was spotted among goods for sale, that signalled the end of your shopping trip for the day. Arabic legends say opal falls from the heavens in flashes of Lightning, while ancient Greeks believed they gave their owners the gift of prophecy and protected them from disease.
Opals are associated with purity and emotions as many believe they can intensify and reflect the mood of the wearer. They are said to promote creativity and interest in the arts, and in new age healing opals are said to treat fevers and infections, purify the blood and regulate insulin.
Opals were first made in a lab by Pierre Gilson in 1974.
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