Andamooka Opal
Encyclopedia
The Andamooka Opal is a famous opal
which was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in the 1950s on the occasion of her first visit to Australia. It was discovered in Andamooka, South Australia
, an historic opal mining town.
The opal was cut and polished by John Altmann to a weight of 203 carats (40.6 g). It displays a magnificent array of reds, blues, and greens and was set with diamonds into an 18 carat
(75%) palladium
necklet.
Opal
Opal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most...
which was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in the 1950s on the occasion of her first visit to Australia. It was discovered in Andamooka, South Australia
Andamooka, South Australia
Andamooka is a town located approximately 600 km north of Adelaide in the South Australian outback. Opal was discovered in the region in the late 1920s, and the town developed out of the scattered miners' camps which established in the area...
, an historic opal mining town.
The opal was cut and polished by John Altmann to a weight of 203 carats (40.6 g). It displays a magnificent array of reds, blues, and greens and was set with diamonds into an 18 carat
Carat (purity)
The karat or carat is a unit of purity for gold alloys.- Measure :Karat purity is measured as 24 times the purity by mass:where...
(75%) palladium
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
necklet.