Could they be pearls?

[Jonelle]

Hello! I am new here I signed up because I have been doing some digging in my yard and driveway which is mostly composed of shells (I live in Florida) I have found many mother of pearl fragments and a few "pebbles" and some resemble pearls... anyone have the eagle eye to detect these? Thanks!!!

 

[pattye]

Jonelle, welcome!
Some pretty little items there, but my guess would be pieces of translucent quartz, polished by the sand. We've been told pearls will degrade quickly in salt water. Just my hunch, though, let's see what others have to say ~ Always a pleasure to find beachy treasures!

 

[Marianne]

I agree with Pattye. and welcome to PG

 

[pearlescence]

I also agree with Pattye. They're quartz and similar minerals, tumble polished to smooth over aeons of tidal and wave action. You can double check by trying to scratch one or two with a sharp point. Pearls are soft, quartz is 7 on the Mohs scale

 

[BWeaves]

Since pearls grow in salt water oysters, I wouldn't think salt water alone would degrade pearls. However, if pearls were mixed in with your driveway gravel, and being soft, and the quartz of the rest of the gravel being hard, pearls wouldn't last very long. They'd be sanded down by the rest of the loose sandpaper (sand and quartz pebbles) in your driveway.

I also live in Florida. It's possible that some of your gravel is broken shell, and mother-of-pearl is the same nacre that is on the surface of round pearls. So it's possible you have some mother-of-pearl that has been sanded into round shapes from tumbling with the quartz and sand.

 

[JerseyPearl]

In very south NJ we get lots of clear quartz mixed into the sand...we refer to them as Cape May Diamonds. These stones look similar, although not clear.

 

[ennui]

Since pearls grow in salt water oysters, I wouldn't think salt water alone would degrade pearls.

I agree. I don't think salt water would harm pearls, but it will degrade the silk thread or cord. Also, didn't someone suggest a salt water rinse when washing pearls? There are a lot of surfers wearing pearls, seems like they would have said something.

 

[pattye]

Well, when pearls are in the oyster they are in a sac, not exposed to salt water. I was remembering how Douglas has a ceremony every year and throws pearls back in the ocean, but I thought he said the pearls would deteriorate fairly quickly. Certainly I could be wrong.

 

[BWeaves]

Pattye: I'm sure you're right, which is why you really don't find loose pearls rolling around the bottom of the ocean. I thought of the fact that the pearls are safely within a pearl sac inside the mollusk's body after I did my original post.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Once mortality occurs in any shellfish, the protein within the shell matrix gradually dissolves as the residual aragonite reverts to calcite.

While many shells may retain their shapes post mortem, they'll eventually become structurally weaker.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

You can double check by trying to scratch one or two with a sharp point. Pearls are soft, quartz is 7 on the Mohs scale

Yes.

Quartz and jade are nearly equal hardness. At our mine site, we'll scratch jade with a mining hammer then look at the mark with a loop. If there are steel flakes present, the material harder than 6.5 mohs.