Opal-AN (Hyalite Opal) ("Blood Vessel / Vascular Opal")

Item Description

A beautiful and honestly, very rarely seen faceted stone of this unique and fairly new Opal from a small mine in Mexico. This stone was cut from a parcel of rough that was discovered in the beginning of 2016 by a friend of ours who is working a claim with a few of the locals for this fine quality Opal. It's very exciting to see specimens of this quality coming out of the ground, as most of the Opal from this area is not nearly as attractive or fine quality as this piece. This "Emerald" cut Hyalite Opal gem has a mixture of colorless and pale golden hues in the interior, but the most important aspect of the piece is the fact that it shows a thin "band" of "capillary"-like inclusions of iron oxide just below the surface, which as given this material the nickname "Blood Vessel Opal" or "Vascular Opal". If you look closely you can see the tiny inclusions that have an almost organic appearance. Unique and interesting! One of the great aspects of the material is that unlike a lot of Mexican Opal, and Opal in general for that matter, this particular Opal is incredibly durable and strong, and doesn't fall apart, crumble or chip apart when cut and / or polished. This is significant because these gems will make great centerpieces for jewelry! Lastly, like most Hyalite specimens, this piece shows a brilliant green fluorescence under SW UV light as you can see in the second photo. It's not often that we see such richly colored Hyalite, and considering it's from a new and very limited discovery, it's a great opportunity to purchase something that nobody else has right now. Don't miss out on this beautiful and rare gem of this well-known Opal variety. For years this material was referred to as "Hyalite" Opal, but is now listed as a variety of Opal called Opal-AN. This material is specifically an amorphous (often colorless) form of Opal that is found in spherical aggregates, that are often intergrown or stacked with a "bead"-like appearance. The listing on mindat.org states that "The "A" in the name stands for amorphous; the subscript "N" is to imply its structure is network-like similar to silica glass.