Sunflash Opals

Twenty years ago in Lightning Ridge, N>S>W> Australia, I saw miners tossing away what they called sunflash. They also called it rubbish. I saw these amazing walnut size nobbies of pitch black common opal (potch) that when wet and looked at in strong sunlight, had rolling, floating flashes of red and blue and green in them How magical it looked. The miner was complaing that he had no money for smokes and wished he had some rough opal to sell me. I said what's thatand pointed at a bucket in the corner? That's only sunflash. I'm getting ready to pitch it out back. I said how about I give you three dollars for each nobby and see if I can sell them in USA and create a market for sunflash? He was thrilled and I bought a hundred of them. They sold well as they hadnt bene seen before in the Quartzsite, AZ rock , gem, and mineral show. So next year I came back for more but found that they had all been snipped in half ( this doubles the price you see plus the guys could double check the inside to see if they were missing something the Yanks were getting). I stopped dealing in sunflash and stuck to the gemmier grades. I had to carry the stuff out and it all weighed the same but the profit ws waaay greater with gem grade. However, sunflash is still very poplular if you can get large enough pieces for carving. One of the local jewelrs was getting 100 dollars a carat for "sunflash' they say. Then I found out it was not for "sunflash" but for black opal that the miners called "distant". Well the so called distant was much strnoger than sunflash and could show up a bit without the sun too. Altho not quite as crisp and electric you see as the gem grade stuff it was gorgeous. Well at 100per carat it had to have something going for itself. Sunflash nobbies make excellent specimens. I keep mine in a small jar of water to display it . Some of the more grey forms tend to be cracky. The jet black glassy sunflash tends to be stable and still a pleasure to behold. I will never forget a sleek black seal an Australian carver had carved (sleek sculptures allows the color play to play) The big sheets or clouds of magic red floated about within it as you moved the seal in the sun.