The easiest way to tell the difference between freshwater and saltwater pearls is by their color. Freshwater pearls are typically white, off-white, or cream in color, while saltwater pearls come in a variety of colors including blue, green, black, and pink. You can also tell the difference by their shape.
South Sea pearls are generally much larger than other pearl types and have a unique luster quality – a soft reflection due to the large aragonite platelets that make up the pearl. They also have the thickest average nacre of all cultured pearls. These factors make South Seas both distinctive and valuable.
Both natural and cultured pearls have textured surface due to their layered nacre structure. So when you rub the pearls lightly against each other or on your front teeth, they feel a little gritty. Fake or imitation pearls, however, usually feel smooth or glassy.
The chief distinction between freshwater pearls and cultured pearls is that the former offers a wide range of choices in terms of color, shape and size. In fact, no other type of pearls offers as much diversity as freshwater pearls. Another important distinction is the shape.
The qualities that determine the overall value of a natural or cultured pearl or a piece of pearl jewelry are size, shape, color, luster, surface quality, nacre quality, and—for jewelry with two or more pearls—matching.
Because South Sea Pearls form over longer periods of time, they are more costly to cultivate. For this reason, there are a limited number of South Sea pearl farms, making the truly prized South Seas exceptionally rare. Not all cultured pearls are good enough to become Assael pearls.
Investing in South Sea Pearls
They may be more expensive than other pearls, but their quality and incredible value make them a good investment. If you take care of your pearls, and repair and restring them when needed, these pearls could be passed on for many generations.
The overall value of these pearls is higher than akoya or Tahitian, and very comparable to white South Sea pearls. The deepest golden color, often referred to as 24 karat, is considered the most valuable color of all South Sea pearls.
To try it for yourself, put a drop of vinegar on the pearl or submerge the pearl in a small cup of vinegar. If you can see bubbles forming from the release of carbon dioxide in the chemical reaction, your pearls are authentic.
Fine South Sea Baroque Pearls are much more valuable and desirable than Baroque Akoya Pearls. Because of the large size difference in the two primary varieties, a South Sea Baroque Pearl is more likely to have a critical mass of lustrous surface.
Real pearls are cold to touch for the first couple of seconds before adjusting to your body temperature. Fake plastic pearls will be room temperature to begin with and you won't feel the coolness when you touch them.
South Sea Pearl Shapes
From smooth, symmetrical drops to off-round buttons, baroques, circled pearls and more Pearls of Joy offers something for everyone to love. Perfectly round South Sea pearls are the most rare … and the most valuable. Perfectly round pearls account for only a tiny fraction of each pearl harvest.
The richest oyster beds are around the town of Broome, Western Australia, 2000 kilometres north of Perth, 1500 kilometres south of Darwin. South Sea Pearls are often referred to as Broome Pearls or Australian Pearls for this reason.
South Sea pearls are farmed in salt water and grown in a large oyster shell, the Pinctada maxima. They are mainly produced in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and French Polynesia.
South Sea pearls are famous for their high gloss luster. We have four grades of pearl luster: Very High (AAA), High (AA), Medium (A) and Soft (B). This is the quality of the light reflections from the pearl's surface. Pearls are said to have high, or very high, luster when the reflections are bright and sharp.
The lip determines the pearl color. While the white pearls are also priced by jewelers, the gold pearl variety is the most coveted color. The gold South sea pearl's color can range from creamy white to deep gold, and the darker the color, the more expensive it becomes.
Gold Pearls
One of the largest and rarest pearls found around the world is Gold in color. They are Golden South Sea pearls, cultured in the Philippine Islands. Golden South Sea pearls have only been available to pearl lovers since the late 1970s, and are known as the “Rolls Royce” of cultured pearls.
The Australian South Sea pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima) is the largest and rarest of all pearl oysters and produces the largest and most valuable of all pearls.
Golden South Sea cultured pearl necklaces are considered by many to be the most rare and most valuable pearls in the world. Unlike any other type of pearl in the world, baroque South Sea cultured pearls have their own allure and exotic beauty.
The price of South Sea pearls depends on their quality, shape and size, with a Golden South Sea strand going well into the thousands of dollars, and white varieties reaching even higher. It is not uncommon for a South Sea pearl necklace to range between $10 000 to $300 000 in price.
Pearls with particular brand names will also retain (and even increase) their value over the years; vintage Mikimoto Akoya pearls that still have their original clasp, box and papers to establish provenance are very highly sought after today and continue to fetch premium resale values.
A natural pearl may show growth lines where concentric layers of nacre have been added. Cultured pearls on the other hand will appear to have a perfectly rounded nucleus that's surrounded by a halo of conchiolin and finally a thin outer layer.
It's often assumed that because something's old it must be valuable. That's rarely true and certainly not for pearls. Advances in technology and culturing techniques mean you can buy a much better set of pearls for far less money than in grandma's time.