Is opal your actual birthstone? I've seen references to folklore online:
"A ring with an
opal setting means
bad luck only for those who do not have this jewel as a birthstone. An
opal is an
unlucky stone."
https://www.google.com/books/editio...ad+luck+folklore&pg=PA260&printsec=frontcover
In the American South.
This is interesting:
https://www.opalsdownunder.com.au/learn/are-opals-bad-luck/
But I think the most unlucky thing that could happen with an opal would be to lose one, not loose one..
No it’s not.
This is interesting especially the De Beers bit.
‘Where opal superstitions began
So where did opal's bad luck story originate and why?
Although fantastical stories of witches and sorcerers strengthening their magical powers with black opals exist, and Medieval Europeans believed opal to resemble the 'Evil Eye', the most popular source of the story that opal is bad luck began with the great 19th century author Sir Walter Scott.
In 1829, Scott wrote a novel called
Anne of Geierstein in which a character named the Baroness of Arnheim wears an opal talisman with supernatural powers. According to the story, the Baroness dies when a drop of holy water falls onto the opal and drains the stone of its colour.
Lucky for Scott, his book was very popular; unfortunately for opal, people at that time began to associate opals with bad luck and death, and amazingly sales of the gemstone dropped by 50% and remained low for 20 years after.
In the 19th Century, opal's reputation also took a hit as the cause of falling monarchies, famine, pestilence, and the Black Plague - Europeans started believing a bright and colourful opal worn by a patient lost its brilliance after the wearer died.
Disgruntled diamond traders also played a big hand in fuelling the bad luck myth at the turn of the through one of the oldest marketing tactics around – word of mouth.
At the turn of the 20th century, a large amount of opal was making its way to markets in the USA, Europe and England, causing then emerging diamond specialists De Beers to panic at the prospect of opal becoming more popular than diamonds.
To ensure diamonds retained a bigger market share, De Beers avidly propagated a rumour that opals were bad luck and promoted it with gusto.
Sadly, they were so successful some people today still think opal is a bad luck stone, an unfortunate belief inherited from grandparents and great-grandparents who bought into De Beers’ lie.
Another possible reason opals were promoted as bad luck by diamond traders is that the gemstone is softer than a diamond - around 6 versus 10 on
Mohs scale of mineral hardness. As such, opals sometimes crack if a great amount of heat or pressure is applied, making them tricky for some jewellers to work with.’
https://www.blackstaropal.com/blogs/news/the-bad-luck-myth-about-opal