Caitlin
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This is a YouTube link to an ABC News item.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG400h_zA9w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG400h_zA9w
A Woman bit down on a quahog clam and found a large pearl
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Caitlin
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2WKPZC1No
This footage has the clam placed on a penny. It is about 2-3mm. Although pretty, I doubt it is worth 3k!
This footage has the clam placed on a penny. It is about 2-3mm. Although pretty, I doubt it is worth 3k!
JerseyPearl
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My mother once found a similar pearl from a clam...I believe it was a cherrystone (the names refer to sizes)...any way the color is similar purple/grey and it is about 4mm. Hers is more egg shaped with a rounded end and a more pointy end. She had a special caged charm made for it so she could wear it on a charm bracelet.
GemGeek
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The thing is, do you know anyone who would pay more than $200 for such a tiny pearl? At that size, it's a candidate for a keepsake or collection, rather than one for jewelry. The Quahog pearls with the most value are larger, evenly colored, glossy and symmetrical. 
Lagoon Island Pearls
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Although it's common hear about quahog pearls, it's mathematically rare. We don't hear about most of them.
The USA in 2011, produced 4.1 million metric tonnes of clams. That's a lot of clams.
Clams are a staple around here. I have no idea how many I've eaten or how many my friends and family ate, but I never found one. I found lots of them in geoducks, but they don't count because they're not "steamers" per se. I did see one this spring from a Manila clam (Venerupis philipinarium), with a friend after a local dig. Small - 3mm, white, off round, dull surface due to cooking.
We seem to hear about oyster pearls at the same rate. Scallops not so much.
Mussels give better odds for finding one, which makes one wonder why we don't see them more often. It's probably because the trade volume is significantly less than oysters, clam or scallops.
Keep looking!
The USA in 2011, produced 4.1 million metric tonnes of clams. That's a lot of clams.
Clams are a staple around here. I have no idea how many I've eaten or how many my friends and family ate, but I never found one. I found lots of them in geoducks, but they don't count because they're not "steamers" per se. I did see one this spring from a Manila clam (Venerupis philipinarium), with a friend after a local dig. Small - 3mm, white, off round, dull surface due to cooking.
We seem to hear about oyster pearls at the same rate. Scallops not so much.
Mussels give better odds for finding one, which makes one wonder why we don't see them more often. It's probably because the trade volume is significantly less than oysters, clam or scallops.
Keep looking!
Caitlin
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Pearls do something to the imagination. When you find one, you know it is so very, very rare to do so - so it is exciting because everyone knows "pearls are worth money".
In the case of quahog and food oyster pearls, people believe the smallest misshapen pebble is something Cartier would pay top dollar for. While quahog pearls found in the mouth show up here regularly, none of them has been big enough, or round enough, or purple enough, to bring in a good offer. I believe the owners of this one will gradually find this out.What they have is a good story, and if they put the pearl in a little cage to wear as a pendant, it will be a family heirloom for generations.
I lean toward the opinion that one is unlikely to find a sizable pearl in a commercial food clam. The biggest pearls used to come in the largest clams- too big for commercial fisheries' standard sizes, and probably rare in the wild nowadays. If there are still any big ones out there, they would have to be found by individuals in places not commercially fished.
Even when you find a small pearl like this, I have heard that they shatter upon drilling, which is why the little cage is necessary, though a prong setting might also work.
In the case of quahog and food oyster pearls, people believe the smallest misshapen pebble is something Cartier would pay top dollar for. While quahog pearls found in the mouth show up here regularly, none of them has been big enough, or round enough, or purple enough, to bring in a good offer. I believe the owners of this one will gradually find this out.What they have is a good story, and if they put the pearl in a little cage to wear as a pendant, it will be a family heirloom for generations.
I lean toward the opinion that one is unlikely to find a sizable pearl in a commercial food clam. The biggest pearls used to come in the largest clams- too big for commercial fisheries' standard sizes, and probably rare in the wild nowadays. If there are still any big ones out there, they would have to be found by individuals in places not commercially fished.
Even when you find a small pearl like this, I have heard that they shatter upon drilling, which is why the little cage is necessary, though a prong setting might also work.
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