Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Is this Real or Synthetic Opal?

G

guilhermeesq

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
151
Hello, Info on the ring .

Looks very tarnished, is 925 silver, has many markings on the underside mostly worn off, even has tarnish on the underside of the ring, the opal has a closed back, open sides as you may see. The White stuff the opal is attatched too is visible in one of the photos, its not even across its unevenly attached, the symmetry of the stone is not perfect either.

The stone can be see-through almost as shown in certain lighting . i am mostly concerned about the pattern and if the opal is synthetic or not. The tarnish on the silver and wear leads me to believe the ring is very old, i am wondering about the "opal "

I will also take more photographs with a better camera tommoro, in various lighting conditions, i apologize in advance for my poor photographs.

4.jpg

0.jpg

5.jpg

7.jpg
 
My opinon with the pictures is that it is an opal triplet or synthetic. I think I see plastic covering it.
 
no plastic covering it, not a triplet or doublet 100% certain, but not certain of real or fake
 
You can't tell from photographs unless you can take highly magnified ones and even then I wouldn't really want to guess.

Some synthetics are very, very good - others you can tell at 10 paces.

Re. being very old, I don't know when the 925 mark was introduced in the USA as for some bizarre reason you don't have hallmarking per se, but in the UK it would denote a modern piece - probably post 1973.
 
Can't say about the opal, but a 925 marking simply means it's sterling (925 parts pure silver out of 1000). It does not indicate age, other than that the piece is post-1906. In that year Congress passed the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act (also known as the Jewelers' Liability Act) which required content marks & put responsibility for their accuracy on the maker.

Exposed to light & air, silver tarnishes within days. From the style of the ring, I don't think it's very antique -- maybe 1960s or later. It's a nice ring, though -- polish it up & have fun wearing it!
 
Curious as to why and how you are 100% sure it's not a doublet or triplet.
 
i can see it from the sides and i know for certain its solid opal or whatever the stone is. also it is not pieced together .

i would be able to see layers if it was a doublet or triplet.
from the side all i see is the "opal" and a bit of something its attatched too (white/yellow material), which appears to be whats holding the stone
It is not a uniform "backing" if i can call it that, it goes with the opal to make it fit in the setting, all the way around even on the sides of the stone, and in some areas it is thicker than other areas, also the polish on the stone is very irregular , its smooth however it is bumpy and not flat.
 
this is the stuff its attatched too i am talking about

7.jpg
 
That makes it a doublet - it's a base the stone is glued to.
 
I agree with Pandora - when you mentioned you could see something that the opal was attached to, that means it has to be a doublet or triplet. It sometimes is very difficult to see the layers and people often don't realise that they're there. The fact it has a closed back is suggestive of it not being solid (although only an indicator and not a definitive).

It could well be synthetic attached to a backing or a natural opal attached to a backing (so doublet or triplet). It's probably not a solid opal.
 
the thing that the opal is attached too does not go all the way around the stone. it only goes where the stone was too small to fit between the metal making it a tight fitting stone instead a loose fit. it also goes up along the sides where the opal is sandwiched between the metal , usually doublet does not come up the sides of the stone. there is a tiny bit of cracking/chipping in the stone where it meets this material white/yellow material , only viewable with 10x.
 
in the first pic , notice the purple arrows, the opal has some of this white/yellow material sandwiched between the metal and the opal,
my guess was to make it fit?

in picture 2 the orange arrows, notice the stuff the opal is attatched too, along the whole ring it is very irregular the white material , sometimes it dissapears and sometimes it becomes thicker depending on the opals thickness to make the stone fit my guess

snapshot.jpg

7.jpg
 
That is probably epoxy that was used to glue the stone in place, instead of setting it properly.
 
Gem ID by internet photo is almost impossible. The white stuff. Is it a straight like it was two flat pieces joined or does it irregularly follow the contour of the stone? Flat would be a doublet. Irregular could be matrix (but it still could be a doublet with a lot more work added to it). Both other than that, you would need to ask someone who has experience in opals, in person. It kind of looks like Gibson (synth), but it could be real. Real can look like synthetic too.
 
irregularly follows the contour of the stone. i was most concerned about the pattern in the stone which looks similar to gilson opal, i am not 100% yet.. i know that the white stone could be matrix or epoxy
 
Gilson... roll my eyes at the reflections in the mirror... Gibson is a guitar. :)
 
You should just take it to a jeweler...
 
I'm afraid there's not enough clarity in the pictures for me to even see the epoxy clearly, thus I would not hazard any guesses if it's a synth, doublet, triplet or a real opal.
 
A video is no use either I'm afraid.

I would need to be able to see the stone in my hand under high magnification to look at the actual structure of the material, not just the pattern or the 'look' of the stone.

You need to take the piece to someone who is a GG or FGA and have them look at it for you.
 
I would agree with Pandora.

My only other comment would be that the performance of the Opal is odd as there are certain bits that don't appear to move or change so I wonder if it is synthetic.

I'm just about to post a video of an opal I own (it's nothing like yours) but you could compare how the stones perform when rotated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP

Featured Topics

Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top