A Real Pearl

Here s an example of an imitation necklace.

A real pearl.

You may want to brush your teeth before attempting this test to make sure they re clean. South sea pearls are often referred to as the rolls royce of pearls. These ridges may not be visible to the naked eye. Fake pearls made from glass or plastic will usually be almost perfectly smooth.

Real pearls would have been strung on silk thread and knotted between each pearl to stop them rubbing together and protect against breakage. The drill hole test. Stringing on cotton or twine with or without knots isn t a good omen. A real pearl has a unique pearl luster and a natural rough feel.

Real pearls are substantial and solid. A real pearl is produced by pearl bearing oysters either in fresh or salt water. South sea pearls grow in a large pearl oyster native to australia the philippines myanmar and indonesia. What are real pearls.

Depending on whether human assistance is involved or not this organic gem can either be cultured or natural. A real pearl will usually have a slightly rough or gritty texture from tiny scale like imperfections in its outer layers of nacre. A cultured pearl is a real pearl grown in a shellfish or mollusk. These pearls are created the old fashioned way but with a little assistance from man.

If you look very closely at them even under a magnifying glass you will notice these surface ridges and the specific quality to each pearl whereas fake pearls they all of them look identical and have smooth surfaces. If you grab a real pearl necklace in one hand and a faux pearl necklace with the same amount of gems in the other more often than not the real pearls will feel heavier. Another way of telling whether a pearl is real is by checking its luster. Fake pearls are often very light especially plastic or ceramic ones while glass pearls often feel heavier than real pearls.

They are the largest and most valuable pearls grown today with average sizes ranging from 10 to 15 millimeters. Real pearls have like a fingerprint like surface ridges in them so they are not identical or perfectly spherical. Over 99 of the real pearls sold today are cultured pearls. A pearlis a hard glistening object produced within the soft tissue specifically the mantle of a living shelledmolluskor another animal such as fossil conulariids.

It s worth noting that almost all pearls on the market today are cultured. Note the very large perfectly formed pearls but cheap clasp. There are many varieties of cultured pearls including freshwater saltwater tahitian and south sea pearls.