Pearl or not...? Please help...

[janchelem]

Please..i need help for this one..my friend in Palawan Philippines sent me an email with saying that this is natural pearl, as it already checked by jeweller..but at just looking at it, i had a doubt..the big one is 1.7kilos..the small one is 450grams..by the way they said it's giant clam..tnx

 

[DaveTT]

That thing is from T. gigas =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_clam

"Giant Clams are currently protected by the CITES agreement ? they can no longer be exported without a permit".

Harvesting this Clam is now illegal , I would recommend you to stay away from that thing.


Best Regards

 

[Caitlin]

I am going to do something i have never done before. Double post. I just posted an answer in another thread when I saw this. I think it deserves the exact same answer as I had just written up.

Thanks Matt. I should have clarified my statement a bit, but as Matt said, some kinds of tridacna are OK for locals to eat. I got the impression that sometimes the smaller, younger gigas are eaten, by locals in some areas- that may be incorrect as I don't remember exactly what my source was. I think the big ones are still being exploited occasionally- maybe with local help sometimes, but such illegal activities are often hard to determine as to who is doing them.

Like how did the recent giant gigas pearls come forth? Someone was taking the large guys and looking for giant pearls. Then when they find one, they come over here or to Kari's Pearls.com and try to sell them. And no one (not even me, so far) asks how and when they were obtained.

So the sooner EVERYONE realizes those giant ugly pearls are worth NOTHING except as local attractions of great attractive quality- like the giant (protected)saguaro cactus forests around Tucson, the sooner people will quit eying the giant specimens with $$$$ in their eyes, if they should kill one and look for a pearl.

I think it is time to start asking who is pulling out these pearls and why. Really, by now, everyone should know the value of the pearls is in their uniqueness to Palawan. But because people think the Pearl of Allah aka the pearl of Lao Tsu is woth millions, poor local people get the idea that having more of these pearls is better than having living gigas for local and tourists to enjoy.

Let me say again. If you read the story of the Pearl of Allah, you should notice that although increasingly large estimates of value were attached to the Pearl of Allah, not one person ever paid more than a token amount of money for it. EVER!!! EVER> EVER> EVER!!!! The only time any cash ever changed hands was a pittance to the family of Wilburn Cobb upon his death. The promised amount was $200k - when the pearl sold- and it never sold so no one was ever paid except maybe 3-5k to the family at the time it changed hands.

And furthermore none of those other big pearls has ever resulted in direct cash-in-hand either! Everone thinks they can get money- but no one has taken the greed-scales off their eyes long enough to check out what was actually paid for the PoA. In fact, it has only been stolen, so far, never bought.

I truly wish that the only outcome of my passion for letting the truth of the PoA be known, would produce the result of people realizing such pearls are bad mojo, bad karma, bad luck, for those who would take then out of the ocean for MONEY!!!!!!! The PoA is nothing but a big curse to all who have "owned" it. Only slimeballs have tried to steal, buy and sell it. If you have not read the true story of the PoA, it is on our news article page.

Please read it and take up this cudgel with me! https://www.pearl-guide.com/in-the-news.shtml

 

[MSC]

Well said, Caitlin!

 

[KAC]

looks like big pieces of polished shell to me and as Caitlin said nobody is going to pay much for them, even if they were pearls.

 

[natural]

i agree for all that is tridacna shell..i was bought like this too so i know exactly about it.

thanks
natural