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Identifying Fake Freshwater Pearls
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Pearls
are very elegant jewelry. You can buy them shaped as
necklaces, bracelets, earrings or even as an accent
to a ring. There are hundreds, if not thousands of
pearl jewelry designs to choose from in the market
today. Before you buy one for yourself, you should
learn how to identify if what you are getting is
genuine or fake.
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First, you have
to know the kind of pearl that is available in the market.
They are categorized in two:
1. Saltwater pearls - these are formed inside oysters that
are living in the heart of the ocean. It has three types -
Tahitian, Akoya, and South Sea Pearls - depending on the
kind of oyster that produced it.
2. Freshwater pearls - these are formed inside mussels that
are living in lakes, rivers, ponds, or any other body of
fresh water.
Either sea water pearls or fresh water pearls can be natural
or cultured. Natural means that there is no human
intervention and the pearl is formed naturally by the oyster
or mussel. The pearl oyster secretes nacre an iridescent
material made of calcium carbonate. The nacre will coat a
microscopic irritant entering its shell until a pearl is
formed. On the other hand, cultured means that a pearl
grower will carefully open the shell and introduce a small
object as an irritant (commonly a bead or metal), then get
them back into the water and wait for the pearl to form.
This usually takes 2-5 years.
There are a lot of fake pearls out there, but it is more
pleasant to own a genuine pearl jewelry at least once in
your lifetime. A genuine pearl does not only mean "natural".
Even "cultured" pearls are genuine pearls too, having an
advantage of being more affordable than natural pearls.
When you hear of fake pearls, it means that they are
man-made pearls made of glass, ceramics, plastics or any
other similar materials. They are also called "faux" pearls
and are sold as costume jewelry. In the face of modern
technology, man can create pearls that look like the
original one. Mind you, fakes can have the exact original
look, but they do not have the same weight or texture. And
their luster is dimmer, which is enough to show that they
are imitations of the original. They do not contain any gem
value.
To help you with identifying genuine fresh water pearls,
here is a three way test:
1. Tooth test - get the pearl and run it against your front
teeth, just right below the biting edge. If you sense a
gritty feeling, it is most probably real. Fake pearls are
smooth, like plastic or glass. However, be very careful of
the pearls that are made from ground shells as they can also
be gritty.
2. Luster test - test the pearls against all kinds of light.
Fake pearls will have a shine only on the surface, while
genuine pearls always shine from within.
3. Rub test - get two pearls and rub it together. It should
be gritty and do not slide off each other.
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