The Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal collection (LPO) is named in honor of the native people who thrived in this harsh but beautiful region of Nevada of which it was found.
Numu Newe are two closely related Indigenous peoples of
the Great Basin.
The Numu are the Northern Paiute and the Newe are the Western
Shoshone.
In their respective Numic languages, both Numu & Newe translate simply to
"The People."
I am honored to name this stunning collection after the Numu Newe as it is
a brilliant reflection of their spirit and culture
This collection of one of a kind Opal is filled with numerous amazing features including beautiful scenery with crayon box color, stunning humanoid and natural images, porcelain hardness with no craziness or cracking common in most Opals, under shortwave 254 nm displays a stunning green fluorescence and a long-lasting eerie phosphorescence white after-glow!
A lapidarists and jewelry lovers dream the Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opals has everything needed to make world class art never seen or imagined before.
Welcome and please check out all the wonderful details about the amazing Numu Newe and of this soon to be South Western American Opal classic!
I am currently documenting this entire collection adding new pictures weekly, last update 10/8/26.
About the Numu Newe Opal collection and the Numu Newe
The Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal was recently discovered in Q2 of 2026.
This amazing Opal collection is made of over 330 primary pieces with a total weight of 32.5 pounds.
Includes 12 large stunning cabinet pieces up to 4 inches. Most opals are found in narrow channels making them an inch or less.
The Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal has world class porcelain hardness, scenery, images, color and fluorescents rarely seen together in opal!
The secret powers of this amazing opal comes from a near by basalt chute that blasted through a layered bed of volcanic tuff about 38,000 years ago or about the same time humans are said to arrived in America, or very young in geological terms.
Super heated groundwater dissolved silica and trace uranium from the surrounding rhyolite forcing the silica gel to rapidly precipitate into the cracks and pockets of the ash bed forming this amazing opal.
The Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal was essentially baked and super-dehydrated in natural pressure cooker.
Under a 254nm blacklight these pieces come to life with either a neon green glow or up to a 10-second white afterglow, or both!
Pieces are not only laced with neon green but also have vugs or cavities of electric Fluorescent Botryoidal Uranyl-activated Chalcedony crystals or grape like clusters that glow neon green.
Pieces display an eerie persistent 10-second white afterglow in particular the lighter color layers.
This is a fascinating rare phenomenon is called Tenacious Phosphorescence or an afterglow.
In total an amazing 33% of of the Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal collection has both fluorescent and afterglow qualities, said to be a rare “three-fer” or luminous.
In many case only a small percentage of such a collection would be a “three-fer” making this a rare find.
In total 17% of the collection displays only neon green effects with vugs or lacing. I am calling these pieces Fluorescent Picture Opal
In total 28% of the collection displays up to 10 second after glow only, no neon green. I am calling these pieces Phosphorescent Picture Opal.
Last only 22% of the collection displays no fluorescent effect. However, as picture opal they are top notch with hardeness, dramatic color an eerie images.
The stunning color was created by the basalt chute super heated water interacting with bed of volcanic tuff.
Colorful opals like these are sought-after for the “crayon box” saturation with vibrant brick-reds, mustard-yellows, and rich creams are phenomenal.
Because these opals were created from volcanic tuff the banding is beautifully varied, chaotic, and non-linear, slabbing these pieces will give you an endless variety of unique, abstract “scenic” patterns. No two will ever be the same!
On top of the amazing colors are stunning eerie images many figures including stunning humanoid like indigenous profiles that a hard to explain.
Created by iron and manganese oxide bands reveal stunning instances of pareidolia—natural, unaltered pictorial figures embedded forever in these amazing opals.
Opal in general is a very light stone compared to jasper or Quartz making it an excellent choice for jewelry.
The Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal is on the light side compared to other opal as the Basalt Chute cooked much of the water out of it.
The Numu Newe Opal has a low specific gravity of 2.05 dry and only 2.07 wet as this opal absorbs almost no water. This opal does not suffer from “crazing” or drying and cracking like many opals.
Despite being as light as a feather in your hand the Numu Newe Opal is all able to scratch glass giving this opal a mho over 5.6 making it some of the hardest opal in the world, which is normally much softer.
Such hardness gives the Numu Newe Opal a resilience rarely seen in opals making it an excellent jewelry choice.
Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal is surely a SW American opal legend with hardness, legendary color and scenery, eerie humanoid profiles, legend neon green and afterglow, all rarely if ever seen before.
I think the name Numu Newe is a perfect reflection of this beautiful opal collection, the region, and ancestral people native to it.
Some may say the Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal is filled with Pooha!
I do!
The Numu Newe translates to “The People”
Numu Newe are two closely related Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin.
The Numu are the Northern Paiute and the Newe are the Western Shoshone.
The Numu Newe traditional lands covered much of modern day Nevada, and surrounding areas in the Great Basin.
Today, the Eastern Shoshone—headquartered at Fort Washakie—share the 2.2-million-acre reservation with the Northern Arapaho Tribe, who were relocated there by the U.S. government in the late 1870s
Today, the Southern Paiute traditionally occupied a vast homeland of more than 30 million acres spanning southern Nevada, SE California and northern Arizona and southern Utah.
Other groups of the Numu Newe can be found through out the U.S.A. including Wyoming.
Today, the Thacker Pass lithium mine (known as Peehee Mu’huh or “Rotzen Moon” to the Numu and Newe) is the largest known sedimentary lithium deposit in the United States, but it has become a major flashpoint for human rights, environmental justice, and corporate extraction
The Numu Newe have great respect for God and the land.
They believe in “Pooha”, which translate to spiritual power or life force.
Pooha is sacred power is found throughout the environment.
Pooha can live in objects, animals, plants, rocks, water, and even the weather.
The Numu Newe believe animals possessed by powerful spirits and wisdom come as helpers or teachers.
I see the “Pooha” living in every piece of the the Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal collection.
When people see a natural images like on a rock it is called Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon where the brain perceives a familiar shape.
Let us take a look at some of the many stunning, even errie, images found throughout the Numu Newe Luminous Picture Opal Collection.
Do you see the images that I see? Or maybe something else?
This thumbnail I named The Warrior’s Shield still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand as when I first seen it.
Coming in a little over an inch, having no fluorescent features this Neumu Newe Picture Opal seems full of Pooha to say the least.
First, do see the warrior image holding a shield running towards or running with two wolves?
Did you look inside the UFO seen above the warrior in the warriors shield?
With the fluorescent neon green and afterglow these rocks inspire a deep spiritual connection to the earth and Numu Newe people and their Pooha.
I hope artists will love these pieces taking advantage of all the neon green vugs and lacing, then the after glow. I cant wait to see what will be created.
I hope you have some time to view the links below leading to all 334 pieces of this collection where you can explore for many amazing images.
I believe this may not only the the finest Picture Jasper ever found but the best documented.
Learn much more while viewing all these amazing pieces of the Numu Newe PJC on the links below!
The Numu Newe Eleven PJC's Cabinet Specimens
Click on each to see more!
These photos are of the rest of the Numu Newe PJC taken on the very day they were discovered.
All of 1 inch or less pieces of the Numu Newe PJC.
All of 1 inch or larger pieces of the Numu Newe PJC.
See this entire amazing collection sorted by effect!
These have both fluorescent effects. Neon Green and Afterglow.
These have the fluorescent effect of Neon Green only.
These have the fluorescent effect of Afterglow only.
No fluorescent effects, just beautiful Numu Newe PJC specimens.
