Black opal find at a local antique mall

[GossamerAngel]

Hello all -

I didn’t yet pull the trigger on this one. It caught my eye turned on its side in a dusty tray filled with a hodgepodge of mostly junky silver pieces. It appears to be an elongated black opal of striking quality - about 12x8 mm. It’s priced at $400 for the whole ring, but I would be buying it really just for the opal.

thoughts? Stone is smooth and I louped it and couldn’t see any cracks or damage.

 

[userangl28212003]

I am no expert, but looks like it could be a treated black Ethiopian opal, not a natural solid Australian black opal, but it is hard to tell from pictures. Is it traslucent? if so it might be what I said. It is pretty.

 

[T L]

It could also be a doublet or synthetic.

 

[userangl28212003]

It could be synthetic, but it's not a doublet, for you would see the backing on the sides and doublets aren't as thick and don't have higher domes. To me it looks like it could either be a ark crystal opal form australia or more so a treated eithiopian crystal opal, becuase it looks like there is no potch on the back, and if it were natural black crystal the price would be much higher.

 

[OpalGalaxy]

It could even be from Andamooka - not lightning ridge. hard to tell!