Cultured fresh water pearls – free to someone...

[StevesStones]

About 12 years ago I bought a string of 45 cultured pearls on a whim. Every now and again I get them out to play with them, but I have no use for them.

They are American, not Chinese, and are roughly uniform in shape – approx 7.5mm x 4.5mm. The lustre is very very good. Their value is about £15-20.

For the price of postage (£3.90) you can have these pearls for free, on one condition – that you tell me what you're going to do with them and show everyone else by starting a thread on this forum.

Message me with your plans. I'll keep this ad open for a week and I'll then let the winning person know.

[Tabby66]

What a lovely idea......thinking cap on!!

[StevesStones]

Good luck! Mind you, if you're the only one who enters, congratulations!

[pearlescence]

Can I just ask..they maybe came from America but what makes you think they originated (were farmed) n America?

[StevesStones]

Hello Pearlescence, good question and you're right to ask.

I know because I bought them in Tennessee. As you probably know (judging from the links in your signature!) round pearls are where the real money is, and these oval pearls don't fetch quite the sort of money round pearls do. In addition, the lustre and secondary colours play a large part of the value of pearls – these are not quite true 'gem' quality lustre (this is an official grading term, as I'm sure you're aware) but they are very good.

When mussels are farmed, they produce far more of these oval pearls than they do round ones. The farm that I bought them from were having a sale on these and I thought 'why not!', even though I'm not much of a pearl enthusiast. If I remember correctly, I paid around 50 cents each for these, but their value has at least doubled in that time, probably more.

Steve

[pearlescence]

To my knowledge there are no pearl farms in the USA. This is, almost certainly, a strand of Chinese freshwater elliptical pearls no matter what the seller said. Sellers pretend Chinese pearls are local pearls all around the world
There is no official grade of gem grade. only A AA and AAA.
The value hasn't doubled. Check my website for similar shape and colour of pearls (probably with better lustre and smoother surface)
Pearls seldom hold their value on the second hand market, unless they are naturals.
Sorry to squash your purchase