The popularity of Opals has exploded in the last few years. Buyers always need to be on the look out and do their best at knowing how to identify fake Opal.
Many shops across the world carry Opal and sell them to the general public at a price point that is lower than Australian Opals. Many buyers do not have experience with this type of Opal and many of them think they are being sold a synthetic or a fake Opal. We will try to explain the best ways on how to identify fake Opal below.
Below are examples of Natural Opals, note all the different patterns.
Below is a sample of what fake Opal looks like.
On Opal Auctions all of our sellers are verified and have knowledge about Opals.
The most common form of synthetic Opal found on the market is the Gilson synthetic. This type of Opal has been around since 1974. It is created using Silica so it is a true synthetic version of natural Opal.
This is the newest type of Synthetic to hit the market. It is made from a resin mixture so it is not a true Synthetic version of natural Opal. The pattern is very similar throughout the Opal. This is to be expected when something is manufactured. Natural Opal is unique and random while a manufactured product will be uniform.
Vendors of Opals should follow these guidelines when trying to describe an Opal.
If you are interested in the patterns found in Opal from Ethiopia please read this informative article about patterns written by GIA.
Browse Our Opals For Sale
La popularité des opales a explosé ces dernières années. Les acheteurs doivent toujours être à l'affût et faire de leur mieux pour savoir comment identifier la fausse Opal.
De nombreux magasins dans le monde vendent Opal et les vendent au grand public à un prix inférieur à Opals australien. De nombreux acheteurs n'ont pas l'expérience de ce type d'opale et beaucoup pensent être vendus comme une opale synthétique ou une fausse opale. Nous allons essayer d’expliquer ci-dessous les meilleurs moyens d’identifier la fausse Opal.
Ci-dessous sont des exemples d'opales naturelles, notez tous les modèles différents.
Vous trouverez ci-dessous un exemple de la fausse opale.
Sur Opal Auctions, tous nos vendeurs sont vérifiés et ont des connaissances à propos de Opals.
La forme la plus commune d'opale synthétique trouvée sur le marché est la synthèse Gilson. Ce type d’opale existe depuis 1974. Il est créé à partir de silice, ce qui en fait une véritable version synthétique d’opale naturelle.
Il s'agit du dernier type de synthétique à être mis sur le marché. Il est fabriqué à partir d'un mélange de résine, de sorte qu'il ne s'agit pas d'une véritable version synthétique de l'opale naturelle. Le motif est très similaire à travers l'opale. Ceci est à prévoir lorsque quelque chose est fabriqué. Natural Opal est unique et aléatoire alors qu'un produit fabriqué sera uniforme.
Les vendeurs d’opales devraient suivre ces directives lorsqu’on essaie de décrire une opale.
Si vous êtes intéressé par les modèles trouvés dans Opal en Ethiopie, veuillez lire cet article informatif sur les modèles écrits par GIA.
Parcourir nos opales à vendre
Cet article a-t-il été utile?
35 personnes ont trouvé cet article utileHi James Rammon2013,
I agree with your view to a point, I have been cutting opal since the early 1960's and cut thousands of opal from around the world, including thousands of both Hydrpphane and non-hydrophane Ethiopian opal. This discussion, and varying viewpoints has been argued since the '60s and I have a strong belief that if it's black then it's a black opal, period!!
Until the recent (last 10 years or so) practice of taking Hydrophane opal and smoke treating it. It is so easy to achieve beautiful "black" Hydrophane opal that is very difficult to distinguish from natural black opal after the gem has been cut and polished. It isn't difficult to tell the difference between the two in the rough by an accomplished cutter, but proving it is natural, after the cut, gives the labs a reasonable doubt. If there's a doubt then i's not going to be certified black.
There are beautiful Black Opal from many places other than Australia, some of the best of those are mined in northern Nevada. I see where the rule on OA comes from that requires all other black opal from other locations to be called "Dark" or "Brown", but this brown designation came from the first Ethiopian opal find in the 1990's that was mostly brown based and a totally different composition than what is now being sold from Wello.
I think the "all other blacks be called brown" rule needs to be updated because there are many that don't have any brown characteristics! These need to be addressed with a current "Eye" since I don't see any change in getting clarity from the labs soon.
I have many writings and articles on opals and you can see my article on "Ethiopian Hydrophane" right here on Opalauctions.
Chuck Starbird, STARBIRDS
My last purchase eBay was 3 years ago, I bought 4 natural Ethiopian black opals
One year later they went dull brown and the pattern disappeared, then year later were clear and then I threw them out
I know now they were treated smoked only and not natural
I paid $400 for them. That was my last purchases on eBay
Hi James it is good question you ask
At present no approved Gem testing laboratory will issue report stating that wello opals are black opals.
There are so many smoked treated Ethiopian opals that are certified by secondary laboratories as black natural opals
For this reason we do not allow our sellers to use word black opals on Ethiopian opals but the word Dark.
You go to any other site besides Opalauctions and see smoked Ethiopians as natural black and even lot Indonesian opal as natural black opal
Until we are advised by approved laboratories like GIA,AGL,IGI our policy will stay the same
Scientists and laboratories are still investigating this and we are in contact with several, looking into Ethiopian and Indonesian opals in regards to treatments and what opal is natural or not
It is an exciting time as everyone wants to use word BLACK in describing their opals and we look forward to latest reports and will update on this site when more research is clarified
Regards wayne
I like to point out that you allow Aussie opals to be called and listed as black such as this opal ,Auction #566653 ,but a Wello opal needs a gem lab report to be called black ? very bias in my opinion,if an opal is black its black and if its not its not,a name should not be used if the item description does not meet the color,do you really need a gem lab report to know if an opal is black or not? or do you think there are no black wello opals ? lol best regards
James