^ Fire opals look so under strong light exposure. I wouldn't call it a "trick". I figure this is under natural sunlight.

A mammoth 568 carats “The Eternal Flame” is the largest and most significant black gem ever found. What makes it even rarer is its origin. The volcanic soils of coastal New South Wales, Australia are replete with bands of obsidian and quartz but only small finds of volcanic opal – nothing like the great inland fields of Lightning Ridge, Coober Pedy and Queensland.

Source: https://www.geologyin.com/2017/08/the-largest-and-most-significant-black.html

110-million-year-old Lizard Rhetinosaurus Found in Amber



Source: https://www.geologyin.com/2022/03/110-million-year-old-lizard.html

And again...

Stunning Azurite rosette from Poteryaevskoe Mine, Western-Siberian Region, Russia.

Photo: Quebul Fine Minerals

Archisorcerus and I seem to be in the same Facebook group. ;-) 

Many, many years ago, I used to organise rough diamond buying tours in South America. (Long story and not very pretty. ;-) ) The contacts I had over there also had a Paraiba Tourmaline mine. 

I was once asked to sell a 30,000 carat parcel of this - they're incredible gemstones. The chance of offloading a huge parcel like that was precisely nil, even through the big gemstone buyers, and I did tell them but nope, not listening. 




Edited by Davesax1965 - July 08 2022 at 07:54

Just received a package of stones from an estate of a rock shop owner who closed his shop in the 1980's and kept his remaining inventory in his private collection since. a slab with some druzy, a lot of snake agate and a really nice geode.

Another "delicious" agate: the grape agate. This looks exceedingly edible, lol.






Edited by Archisorcerus - July 05 2022 at 11:09

This was the 2nd agate from Turkey I've seen in the last couple of days out of the 3 in total; and no, I'm not following Turkish sources for that on Facebook. This was bought by an American. Lovely.