Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:26 pm
Hi all!
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Casey and this is my first post here on opalholicsanonymous! Last year I was inspired by a close friend who is a rock hound nearly twice my age and I caught the opal fever from him! I have known him for many years and now that I've returned to my home town area from college and started to settle into the working life I have found myself with much more free time.
My friend mined a stunning opal limb cast from the Virgin Valley about 5 years ago and got it out of his safe to show me back in May (2017). Once I had laid eyes on what he had mentioned so many times in passing, I realized that I had no clue about the kind of beauty of opal. Prior to this introduction to my friend's limb cast I had never even heard of precious opal -- but my heart skipped a beat when I saw such beauty. I was speechless at my friends specimen, which he has aptly named "Oh My" - for good reason!
We planned an opal mining trip together for 5 months and were targeting the beginning of October (2017), two weeks before most of the mines close for the season. I was aware of the steep costs involved and PAINFULLY saved my spare money, even altering my budget as far as weekly groceries! I fell in love with my crock pot during this time! $20 can buy 2 meals a day for almost a week! I bought all the hand tools I would need and diligently planned the trip for 5 months, all the while studying on the geology of the Virgin Valley, its tendencies for opal bearing strata and wise mining strategies.
Anyways, my friend was experiencing some financial difficulty a few weeks before we had planned to go out together and wasn't able to go. So I had to go by myself out into the Nevada desert. I was intimidated but also very excited. My painstaking preparation certainly paid off and I feel that through my incredibly hard work at the Royal Peacock I was blessed by the cosmos. I must have swung my rock pick over 20,000 times in two days at the Royal Peacock (allowed 8hrs a day to dig at the bank).
I found a wondrous N1 limb cast that has every color of the rainbow in it and also a directional broadflash that I've dubbed "Peacock Broadflash". I made a youtube channel (see videos below) to upload content onto so that I can share my findings. I found this specimen on my second day and struck the opal at an angle with my rock pick, fortunately sheering off the end instead of spider-web cracking the stone. Swinging at an angle was a conscious effort, for th very reason of preserving any opal I may find after having seen so many videos of cracked specimens coming from the VV.
(watch these in HD)
Small piece displaying all its colors:
Small piece's "Peacock Broadflash"
The parent stone, "The Black Hole" as I have named it
"Oh My" my friend's opal that started this amazing journey
I have small fragments of the N1 limb cast sitting on a shelf in my bedroom, in the open air, and see no crazing about 3 months after mining it. I've read quite a bit on the tendencies of the VV material to craze and the lengths required to protect against this (keeping the big pieces in water since the moment I excavated them).
I made contact with an individual who lives near to me with great lapidary skills. Cutting opal is a passion of his and he claims he has a method he's worked up to 50% success on stabilizing VV material. I'm aware that the Iron sulfides in N1 material, and their density while attributing to the opaque nature of N1 material also increases the stability. So far this N1 material has been in the stabilization process for 3 months and no damage has occurred.
MY QUESTION FOR THE COMMUNITY:
What kind of value can I place on this quality of black opal? I understand that N1 with all colors is quite rare but I have no clue if this can be compared to what I'm seeing with Australian Black Opal prices. Which is mind-bending. I'm not quite 30 years old and I'm having a hard time comprehending the significance of my find.
I need your help in comprehending just what I have here... My feeling currently is that I wouldn't sell this material, once stable and cut (it's gotta get to this point first, I know nothing is garunteed!) until I know what I have. Especially considering the pattern in it which i have seen nowhere else. What do you think?
Thank you for taking the time to read this post,
Casey
Attached are some still photos. I'm not exactly certain what to call the pattern, so far calling it "Peacock Flash"
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Casey and this is my first post here on opalholicsanonymous! Last year I was inspired by a close friend who is a rock hound nearly twice my age and I caught the opal fever from him! I have known him for many years and now that I've returned to my home town area from college and started to settle into the working life I have found myself with much more free time.
My friend mined a stunning opal limb cast from the Virgin Valley about 5 years ago and got it out of his safe to show me back in May (2017). Once I had laid eyes on what he had mentioned so many times in passing, I realized that I had no clue about the kind of beauty of opal. Prior to this introduction to my friend's limb cast I had never even heard of precious opal -- but my heart skipped a beat when I saw such beauty. I was speechless at my friends specimen, which he has aptly named "Oh My" - for good reason!
We planned an opal mining trip together for 5 months and were targeting the beginning of October (2017), two weeks before most of the mines close for the season. I was aware of the steep costs involved and PAINFULLY saved my spare money, even altering my budget as far as weekly groceries! I fell in love with my crock pot during this time! $20 can buy 2 meals a day for almost a week! I bought all the hand tools I would need and diligently planned the trip for 5 months, all the while studying on the geology of the Virgin Valley, its tendencies for opal bearing strata and wise mining strategies.
Anyways, my friend was experiencing some financial difficulty a few weeks before we had planned to go out together and wasn't able to go. So I had to go by myself out into the Nevada desert. I was intimidated but also very excited. My painstaking preparation certainly paid off and I feel that through my incredibly hard work at the Royal Peacock I was blessed by the cosmos. I must have swung my rock pick over 20,000 times in two days at the Royal Peacock (allowed 8hrs a day to dig at the bank).
I found a wondrous N1 limb cast that has every color of the rainbow in it and also a directional broadflash that I've dubbed "Peacock Broadflash". I made a youtube channel (see videos below) to upload content onto so that I can share my findings. I found this specimen on my second day and struck the opal at an angle with my rock pick, fortunately sheering off the end instead of spider-web cracking the stone. Swinging at an angle was a conscious effort, for th very reason of preserving any opal I may find after having seen so many videos of cracked specimens coming from the VV.
(watch these in HD)
Small piece displaying all its colors:
Small piece's "Peacock Broadflash"
The parent stone, "The Black Hole" as I have named it
"Oh My" my friend's opal that started this amazing journey
I have small fragments of the N1 limb cast sitting on a shelf in my bedroom, in the open air, and see no crazing about 3 months after mining it. I've read quite a bit on the tendencies of the VV material to craze and the lengths required to protect against this (keeping the big pieces in water since the moment I excavated them).
I made contact with an individual who lives near to me with great lapidary skills. Cutting opal is a passion of his and he claims he has a method he's worked up to 50% success on stabilizing VV material. I'm aware that the Iron sulfides in N1 material, and their density while attributing to the opaque nature of N1 material also increases the stability. So far this N1 material has been in the stabilization process for 3 months and no damage has occurred.
MY QUESTION FOR THE COMMUNITY:
What kind of value can I place on this quality of black opal? I understand that N1 with all colors is quite rare but I have no clue if this can be compared to what I'm seeing with Australian Black Opal prices. Which is mind-bending. I'm not quite 30 years old and I'm having a hard time comprehending the significance of my find.
I need your help in comprehending just what I have here... My feeling currently is that I wouldn't sell this material, once stable and cut (it's gotta get to this point first, I know nothing is garunteed!) until I know what I have. Especially considering the pattern in it which i have seen nowhere else. What do you think?
Thank you for taking the time to read this post,
Casey
Attached are some still photos. I'm not exactly certain what to call the pattern, so far calling it "Peacock Flash"