Pearl Information

Akoya Pearls?

How do you tell if a pearl is an Akoya saltwater pearl or a freshwater pearl?

There are three ways to determine if a pearl is an Akoya pearl vs a freshwater pearl. The trick is to determine if there is a bead nucleus, since only Akoya pearls have a bead nucleus.*

The first is to look down the drill hole. If you can see the mother-of-pearl bead under the nacre when looking down the drill hole, then it is an Akoya pearl. But this only works with lower quality pearls that have thin nacre.

Another way is to use a technique called candling. In a dark room, hold the pearls in front of a lit candle, and see if you can see the bead nucleus.

The third is to have a lab x-ray the pearls. This is the most definitive test, but it can't be done at home.

*Note that recently China has started to produce nucleated freshwater pearls in small quantities. As this becomes more commonplace, new techniques will have to be developed to determine whether a pearl is an Akoya saltwater pearl or a freshwater pearl.

posted by The Pearl Hunter @ 7:37 AM