Anyone,
I have an attached scan of an opal I recently obtained, which was
supposedly from Coober Pedy 14-mile. The pattern is very odd, the
circles are like inclusions, and the fire inside the circles appears
and disappears depending on the angle. I have been told by a couple
of gemmologists (not opal specialists) in my area that the stone is
created, but others have said it is natural. Their reasons for it
being created were not good: back polish, base color, etc. The
stone is gray semicrystal, and has 3/4 potch, 1/4 rolling green fire
on the partially polished back (cutter stopped at a non-polishing
grit).
Can they or do they now create opals that look like this? If so,
that is highly disturbing to me, as one who prefers “naturals”. I
noticed under magnification that the stone has the light colored
"feathers" that sometimes divide color (doesn’t look like crazing),
does this mean anything?
Thank you,
Blaine Buckman
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