A conch natural pearl is one of the rarest pearls in the world. Its creation is due to a pure chance of nature. Every year, at the most, 2000 - 3000 conch pearls are fished from the flat waters around the coasts of Florida, the Bahamas, the Yucatan and the Antilles islands. Only 15 - 20% are suitable for making jewelry. All previous attempts at cultivating them have failed because the Strombus Gigas sea snail that produces this pearl is extremely sensitive. The complicated spiral form of the snail shell means that it is not possible to reach the pearl-forming part without endangering the life of the anima

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Melo Melo pearls are extremely rare and come not from an oyster or mollusk but instead from the Melo Melo marine snail, which is found in the waters of the South Chine Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Like conch pearls, the Melo Melo gem is not actually a pearl because it contains no nacre. They can be extremely large and are generally very round. The colors range from tan to dark brown. Orange is the most desirable color.

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Nucleated freshwater pearls that once existed in rumors were out in quantities for the world to see. They were not the round perfect spheres the pearl world expected but baroque pearls with tails. Unusual creatures but some were quite exceptional.

It is very likely that bead nucleated freshwater pearls will be commercially produced in three to five years . The cultivation is in the trial stage at many farms with higher mortality rates and a high proportion of pearls with tails. If history is any indication, bead nucleated freshwater pearls will add a new chapter to the pearl world.

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The newest type of natural pearl available to collectors is the scallop pearl. It is found in a marine bivalve scallop that is native to the coast of Baja California, and is just beginning to be harvested. Highly variable in size and shape, they have mosaic-like patterns and cream to salmon or mauve colors with a semi-metallic to chatoyant sheen

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Certainly the rarest and most valuable botanical jewel is the legendary "coconut pearl" that occasionally forms inside a coconut (Cocos nucifera).
Like the pearls of oysters and giant clams, it is a shiny calcareous sphere. It is difficult to place a monetary value on a genuine coconut pearl, but the odds of finding one in a coconut are certainly less than one in a million. To put it another way, if you cracked open and thoroughly examined one coconut every 15 minutes during a normal eight hour work day, it would take roughly 80 years to go through a million coconuts!

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With its deep purple swirls blending into a white background, the quahog shell is absolutely beautiful.
The quahog has one of the hardest shells found in all of the seven seas. Quahog shells ae harder than gems like lapis lazuli and malachite.
Quahog shells owe their colors and patterns to a unique combination of genetics and habitat.
This lovely pearl typically occurs in unusual shades of color from purple to lilac, and it is created in the "quahog" clam that thrives in the Atlantic
ocean off the shores of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Quahog clams are marketed as littlenecks and cherrystones, and they are eaten raw or used in chowder.
Soon after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 it was found that the local Wampanoag tribe used a medium of exchange called "Wampum" which consisted of beads made of the most famous Baystate bivalves...the quahog. Pearls of the quahog are the most precious in the world today being the only salt water purple pearl of any significant size in the world and of incredible rarity. It is also one of the longest lived North American bivalves with a life sometimes greater than 40 years. A recent find in Newport Rhode Island had a value of $42 million (at over 15mm diameter it was extremely large).
Though wampum has long since passed into history as the nation's first domestic currency, its use in jewelry continues

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Click to readthe International Pearl Journal's article on elephant pearls