Peruvian pink opal

[Majorjim]

The question, I have had a beautiful colored slab 18" x18" 4" thick just over 200 lbs for years and someone recently told me it looked like opal. I Sawed off a piece and took it to 3 different places and all confirmed it is Peruvian pink opal. It is solid opal. Is this anything that is worth doing anything with or keep it as a pretty stone in my front yard.

Jim

[Stephen Challener]

It cuts pretty cabs and it's worth a few dollars a pound in the rough. So your chunk is certainly not worthless, and given how much of that material is being offered for sale (there was a fair amount at Tucson this year) there is probably a decent market for it.

[Majorjim]

The question, I have had a beautiful colored slab 18" x18" 4" thick just over 200 lbs for years and someone recently told me it looked like opal. I Sawed off a piece and took it to 3 different places and all confirmed it is Peruvian pink opal. It is solid opal. Is this anything that is worth doing anything with or keep it as a pretty stone in my front yard.

Jim

It cuts pretty cabs and it's worth a few dollars a pound in the rough. So your chunk is certainly not worthless, and given how much of that material is being offered for sale (there was a fair amount at Tucson this year) there is probably a decent market for it.

Thank you. Think about cutting it into 4x4 blocks not sure that would destroy the price or keep it whole.

[Bluegemz]

I recently saw a beautiful, large cabochon of pink opal set in oxidized silver, with a pink spinel encrusted bail. The opal looked like luminous coral or even a huge conch pearl. That pendant was selling for5k at a very high end jewelry store. My point is that it can look good enough if cabbed nicely, to pull high prices in finished pieces. The work and imagination can add a lot of value with high quality pink opal. It's interesting to me that this store, which sells to royalty, decided to use pink Peruvian opal. So, it definitely has value.