The Opal - Nature's Most Beautiful Gemstone?

 The opal necklace is a fascinating gemstone to look at. While other stones and diamonds are also interesting in an aesthetic sense, they don't match up. The stone's play of colors changes with the angle you look at it, making it a gem that you can look at for hours! These flashes of colors are called opalescence and may be numerous or few and differing in size and type. It is these colorings that determine how much an opal is worth. The opal is a gem mainly found in Australia. Almost 95% of the stones on the market are mined there, though Mexico, Brazil and a few American states also export the colored gemstone. There have also been recent finding in the African nations of Ethiopia and Mali, but the opal is an Australian stone first and foremost. Opals are classified into two major groups: precious opals and common opals. Those that display the characteristic play of color are known as precious opals, while those lacking this - single color specimens - are known as common opa...