A little known fact about Queen Victoria was that her favorite stone was the opal, specifically the Australian Opal. She loved them so much that she gave jewels fashioned from opals to her daughters upon the occasions of their marriages. Her daughters took to loving opals as well and gave opal jewelry to their friends as gifts. People at court were also encouraged to wear the stone, despite the myth that they were unlucky to those who wore them unless they were their birthstones. Even when her beloved Prince Albert died in 1861, she still maintained her love of opals but instead wore them black for mourning him.