Nice little story Marty, sorry to hear about the collection going AWOL. I have a few more pieces in the collection now, but mainly stuff like Pyrite and Copper Ore, which looks pretty cool, so only value is it looks cool to me... I also have a piece of weathered Bassalt with Quartz embedded in it, my son found it and it looked cool so I kept it
Must get more Meteorites one day, but Telescope purchases are keeping that on hold for now
hmmm opals you say [rubs chin]