Jan 25th, 2019 : Opal

[xoxoxoBruce]

I love opals for some reason, probably because it’s my birth stone...

Opal has always been associated with love and passion, as well as desire and eroticism. It is a seductive stone that intensifies emotional states and releases inhibitions. It can also act as an emotional stabilizer. Wearing an opal is said to bring about loyalty and faithfulness.

Well dat ‘splain it.

Brian Berger, a GIA Graduate Gemologist and CEO of Timberbrook Capital LLC in North Wales, PA, bought an Opal from Java.
I suspect he bought it as an investment because it’s so unusual.

Last year, I purchased a precious opal discovered on the island of Java in Indonesia. The specimen is an extremely rare example featuring “play of color” throughout the stone. But, most exciting in this particular opal—and likely of most interest to readers of this blog—is not the play of color but rather the inclusion. Embedded within the opal is an intact encased insect.

The specimen was examined recently by the Gemological Institute of America and received a letter of provenance for the rarity of such an inclusion. The letter includes the GIA report number from the examination of the stone. From a gemological standpoint, this is truly an exciting and extremely rare, notable find. And the same can likely be said from the entomological perspective. In the future, I would be eager to collaborate with an expert in insect fossils to investigate the insect inclusion further.

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