Giant Clam Pearl

King of Pearl

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Mar 1, 2014
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A diver friend found this in Palawan, Philippines, very rare pearl weighing 7.1kilograms.
C3EB6171-00BB-46F8-9D31-5094C682CB3B.jpg
 
Something only a Mama Clam could love. :) Their worth goes down, the more they have been "worked" after cutting from the shell, but they are rare. If your friend wants to sell it, there is a Natural History Auction held periodically by Bonham's. That would be the best bet. Do they still have the shell it came from? That would add to the value.
http://www.bonhams.com

Welcome to Pearl Guide! :)
 
Something only a Mama Clam could love. :) Their worth goes down, the more they have been "worked" after cutting from the shell, but they are rare. If your friend wants to sell it, there is a Natural History Auction held periodically by Bonham's. That would be the best bet. Do they still have the shell it came from? That would add to the value.
http://www.bonhams.com

Welcome to Pearl Guide! :)

Hello GemGeek, Thank you for your reply, Unfortunately, he took it out from the shell, because it was sooo heavy to bring it up. And yes, my friend wants to sell it, will advise him to see that Natural History Auction.. Good day :)
 
I strongly advise all of you Filipino giant clam pearl people with interests to work with your government to make a registry of these giant clam national treasures that can be tourist attractions, but not taken out of the country except to tour with a museum show or something.

WHAT YOU ALL NEED IS CORRECT PUBLICITY.

The plight of the giant clams, their pearls, scientific information about these pearls and suchlike is what you need to be gathering.

Go to the university or local colleges with biology departments and get the malacologists all worked up about these unique clams.

Get the hotel that is advertising the king's pearl to actually put out real information.

And they should sell the scraps from the carved pearl if they are chaytoyant as one of the descriptions seems to attest.

There is a guy in the Philippines, Redempto Anda, who is at least a part time reporter, who has researched the first big pearl- the Turbaned pearl, I shall call it, and get him to join you.

Start a society of the giant clam pearl.

Get people to write accurate info about the history, the geography and the folklore of these pearls. Heck, I'll help you do that- it is one of my favorite subjects....

Trying to auction these guys off as curiosities based on the frauds of the Pearl of Allah will bring in little cash to anyone, but getting together to form a society of the giant clam pearl and get scientists, reporters, and business people to push the govt into using the clams a symbols of Palawan at least.


I think this is one of the best ideas I have ever had. Seriously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I implore all my friends who read this to join me in making a chorus to the people involved in making a living from giant clam pearls, to get together and create a Palawan brand based on these stately. elegant gorgeous clams and the occasional calcareous concretion they gift the community with. To make them national treasures and to make the pearls more valuable than gold or currency!

A national treasure to be the foundation of a tourist economy that helps float everyone's boat.
 
Maybe, if the smallest pearls are chatoyant, the incident found pearls could be carved. I really think this could be the species of pearls that needs carving to increase its calue, but then, the chatoyant shavings would also make good jewelry. I am not at all sure any or all the giant pearls are chatoyant, but it certainly would increase their value, if they could be used in jewelry like mother of pearl. Someone will have to let us/me know about the chatoyance.
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I just want to put it on record that although I want the pearl finder to make some money, I do not think selling it is a great idea. Maybe he can lease it to another big hotel on Palawan for a small sum, but you and other people acting for him will realize the long term wisdom of making a big local deal out of these pearls and the clam they come from.

Why sell to a museum or a collector if you can rent or lease it to a local business and get that business to be part of the Society of the Giant Clam Pearl. This society can exist online and be worldwide, but if you get good science and good publicity, all of Palawan will benefit. Plus, some are exploiting these beauties for things still like nuclei for cultured pearls, They make terrible nuclei because the pearl breaks when drilled, way too often. There is so much that can be said on the foundation of these giant pearls, that I can only point to all the possibilities.

I labor under the stereotype that Filipinos are entrepreneurial and hardworking. Making these pearls a national treasure is a career that can be created by someone enterprising enough to find and write to the Pearl-Guide.com. In fact, taking up the cause of the giant clam as a national treasure will make careers for at least a dozen people directly, not to mention the indirect (read tourist) benefits.

I am so totally on my soap box about this. I hope someone sees the value in what I am saying.......

Getting the owners of two-three of these pearls together with agents willing to represent them in making the clams and their pearls national treasures, will create bonds between the finders/caretaker families and the venues where their pearls can be seen. Make a local Palawan in-thing about being the only place where these treasures can be found. And keeping them owned by locals and only leased out, buys time to build the local networks to protect them permanently. The family will never see much money if the pearl is sold, but if it is leased, the ownership is not passed away from Palawan.

Did anyone ever read, "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck?

Whenever I see a pearl that should be a local treasure pass out of the hands of the local family, I think of that book. the poor peasant who found that pearl did not have the internet, or even an agent with the internet. So I would like to see the local family get permanent benefits- just as I would like to see the Turbaned Pearl of Allah returned to the Pisi family. In fact, I would recruit them in any efforts to make a local alliance about keeping ownership the big pearls in Palawan. Whip up local sentiment. Do you guys have town halls or anything close to that? A place to advance the idea of the community taking charge of their local no-renewable treasures?

I will be happy to write on this subject further, and I hope some locals on Palawan will use my arguments to get friends, family, local news outlets everyone, to accept the idea of banding together behind the local family ownership of the giant pearls and horror at the idea of selling them for a few pieces of silver, based on all the lies about the original giant clam!

The first pearl has never sold yet. It is worth but little other than the value of its publicity.

But people still get greedy when they think about the first pearl. The most money ever to change hands for the first pearl was less than $5k, so that is probably over the market value. The rest was lies and hype.
 
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