Fourteenth Anniversary Stone: Opal

What is the 14th anniversary stone?

The 14th anniversary stone is opal. This is a straightforward year: the traditional and modern lists both land on opal, so there is no split to weigh. What you do need to weigh is the stone itself, because opal is one of the more delicate gems we work with, and buying one well means knowing that going in. If you want to see how fourteen fits into the full run of years, our anniversary stones guide lays them all out.

What opal actually is

Opal is unlike almost any other gemstone. Most gems are crystals; opal is made of tiny spheres of silica packed together, and it holds a small amount of water inside, usually a few percent by weight. When those spheres are arranged just so, they scatter light into the shifting flashes of colour opal is famous for, called play-of-colour. That is the blue, green, orange and red that seem to drift across the stone as you tilt it. No two opals are alike. The background can be white, grey, or the deep dark of a prized black opal, and the flashes ride on top of it. On durability, opal is on the soft side, sitting at 5.5 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale. That, plus its water content, is the whole story of how you should treat it. For comparison a sapphire is a 9. Opal is beautiful and fragile in equal measure, and there is no point pretending otherwise.

Why opal for year fourteen

Opal earns its place through that changing colour. A stone that never looks quite the same twice, that shows a different face in different light and from different angles, makes a fair emblem for a marriage fourteen years along, full of colour and never entirely predictable. That is the grounded reading, and it holds without any need to reach for mysticism. Opal has been treasured for a very long time; the Romans valued it highly, and Australia has produced the world's finest stones since the late 1800s. There is one bit of folklore worth mentioning only to dismiss it: the old idea that opals are unlucky comes largely from a nineteenth-century novel, not from anything real. Opal is simply a lovely, characterful stone. If you or your partner were born in October, it is also an October birthstone, which our October birthstone page covers.

Choosing a piece for your 14th

Because opal is soft and can crack, the setting matters more here than with almost any other anniversary stone. We generally steer people away from opal rings for everyday wear, especially on a working hand, because a ring takes constant knocks that a 5.5-to-6.5 stone will not shrug off. If you do want an opal ring, ask for a bezel setting that wraps metal fully around the edge to protect it, and treat it as an occasional piece rather than an all-day one. The happier homes for opal are pendants and earrings, where the stone hangs free of hard knocks and the play-of-colour catches changing light as the wearer moves. That is genuinely where opal looks its best anyway. You may also come across doublets and triplets, which are thin slices of opal backed and sometimes capped with clear stone or glass to make the colour go further at a lower price; they are a fair budget option but should never be soaked in water, so ask which you are buying. We set opal by hand here in Coquitlam and will talk you through the trade-offs honestly before we build anything. You can start a one-off piece through our bespoke anniversary service, and resetting a treasured old opal into a safer pendant mount is a common fourteenth-anniversary request.

Caring for opal

Opal needs the most careful routine of any stone on the anniversary list, but the rules are simple once you know them. Keep it away from heat and very dry air: do not leave it in a hot car, on a sunny sill, or near a radiator, because losing its water can make an opal craze, which is a network of fine cracks that cannot be undone. Never use an ultrasonic or steam cleaner; the vibration and heat are exactly what opal cannot take. Clean it only with a soft, barely damp cloth and dry it gently. Put opal jewellery on last, after perfume, hairspray and lotion, since those can dull the surface, and take it off before anything rough with your hands. Store it away from harder stones so a diamond cannot scratch it, and if you keep it unworn for a long time, a slightly humid spot is kinder than a bone-dry drawer. Treated with that bit of care, an opal will keep its fire for a lifetime and beyond.

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