| The nacreous ones are rare. The pearl has to form in the back of the shell to be nacreous.
Penn pearls are completely the byproduct of the mollusk fishing industry. I received an email a few months ago from GIA asking if I had every heard of any culturing attempts so I did some research. It is just not viable because the pearls are typically a pretty hard sell - even the naturals.
The non-nacreous pearls will not last. The dry up and crack, and really cannot be drilled. The nacreous pearls are better and have some decent luster, but about 70% of the pearls found are non-nacreous. |