Pearls

A cultured pearl sells for significantly less than a natural pearl but significantly more than an imitation pearl, so correct identification is very important. The initial visual inspection prompted AnchorCert gemmologists to suspect that the batch contained two types of pearls, most of which were in fact imitation. Freshwater cultured pearls would normally demonstrate variation in size, shape, colour and texture but many of these were of uniform size and appearance.  In order to be abso…

  A selection was photographed by X-Ray and it could clearly be seen that some pearls, which all had a suspiciously uniform appearance, had a large bead under the outer-coating. Scraping revealed two coatings neither of which was a natural crystalline structure, confirming that this was not a freshwater cultured pearl. Further analysis using the Raman Spectrophotometer, X Ray Fluorescence and the electron spectrometer proved conclusively that most of the pearls were man-made imitations a…