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.
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De populariteit van Opals is de afgelopen jaren explosief gestegen. Kopers moeten altijd op hun hoede zijn en hun best doen om te weten hoe ze nep Opal kunnen identificeren.
Veel winkels over de hele wereld verkopen Opal en verkopen ze aan het grote publiek tegen een lagere prijs dan Australian Opals. Veel kopers hebben geen ervaring met dit type Opal en velen van hen denken dat ze een synthetische of een nep Opal worden verkocht. We zullen proberen de beste manieren uit te leggen voor het identificeren van nep Opal hieronder.
Hieronder staan voorbeelden van natuurlijke opalen, let op alle verschillende patronen.
Hieronder ziet u een voorbeeld van hoe nep Opal eruit ziet.
Op Opal Auctions zijn al onze verkopers geverifieerd en hebben kennis van Opals.
De meest voorkomende vorm van synthetische Opaal die op de markt wordt gevonden, is de Gilson-kunststof. Dit type Opal bestaat al sinds 1974. Het is gemaakt met Silica, dus het is een echte synthetische versie van natuurlijk Opaal.
Dit is het nieuwste type kunststof dat op de markt komt. Het is gemaakt van een harsmengsel, dus het is geen echte synthetische versie van natuurlijke opaal. Het patroon lijkt erg op de hele Opal. Dit is te verwachten wanneer er iets wordt vervaardigd. Natural Opal is uniek en willekeurig terwijl een vervaardigd product uniform zal zijn.
Leveranciers van Opals moeten deze richtlijnen volgen wanneer ze proberen een Opal te beschrijven.
Als u geïnteresseerd bent in de patronen in Opal uit Ethiopië, lees dan dit informatieve artikel over patronen geschreven door GIA.
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35 mensen vonden dit artikel nuttigHi 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