The
October birthstone appropriately comes in orange, black, and a wide variety of other colors.
Opal is an odd mineral. It contains as much as twenty percent water, but typically is around 3-10%. Opal's rare and expensive colors include red and black. The common and easy to find colors are white and green shades. Exotic versions of this gem include
Fire Opal, and Peruvian Opal. Fire Opal consists of a translucent base with a shade of yellow, orange, or red. Peruvian is a stone found in Peru which is blue and green. Australia is the number one producer of Opal in the world. However, rare varieties are found in other places across the world including the United States and Mexico.
Because of the mixed colors in Opal it was often thought to be good luck. Historically people assumed that because of those colors, it contained a little bit of all the other precious gemstones. Oddly enough, in modern times; especially in Russian culture, Opal is seen as a bad omen.
