Southsea pearls or not?

[lovepearls]

Hi! I hope you can help me with these pictures of pearls. i am new to pearls and i'm not so sure how and what to look for.
1. white southsea pearls? i paid $100 for this pair. it is around 13mm
2. are these golden southsea pearls? two 14mm & one 15mm loose pearls. i'll be paying $225 for all three.
3. green and brown. are these southsea pearls? i thought they come only in white and golden. or are they freshwater? they are between 12-13mm. are they worth $70 per pearl?
4. my mom bought this necklace for me. according to the seller's tag it is baby southsea with southsea pendant. is there such a thing - baby southsea?

i would appreciate some feedback. thank you.

[Agustus-Collection]

Hi

1: could be, would need better photo to be sure
2: 14mm - 15mm for that price would not be possible being genuine south sea pearls ( i assume that they are round )
3: they look definitely dyed to me, many lesser grade south sea pearls are dyed with some 'fancy' colors :l
4: the baby south sea look more like freshwater pearls, the pendant could be a south sea pearl.

Cheers
Sven

[waimeamomi]

Sven beat me to it - everything he says, except that I think a matched, round pair of 13mm SS for 100. would be suspect. #3 could be Tahitians, but any pearls that color brown are dyed.

[lovepearls]

thanks for the quick reply. if picture #2 is not southsea (golden), could it be freshwater then? if it is, is it worth $225 for all 3? picture #1 the (white) pearls have blemishes and imperfections that's why i assumed it was cheap. how would i know if it is southsea?

[Caitlin]

The colors on the golds look dyed;theyre totally unreal looking. Baby south seas specifically means "freshwater pearls", esp aat Greenhills plaza, If the 13mm earrings are freshwaters and not shell pearls, they are worth the $$ but they could be shell pearls. I don't think you have any Southseas there. Real ones would be prices 10x higher, at least.

[lovepearls]

thanks for your feedback. i've always suspected that the 13mm are fwp despite the seller's claim of them being southseas but never thought of shell pearls. what are shell pearls? how would i know if they are shell pearls or not? and the gold pearls, do you think they're freshwater or shell pearls? i haven't actually seen them yet - just through this photo. I'd rather spend my $225 on a good fwp. sorry for all the questions, i never thought that buying pearls would be this complicated. i'm really glad i found this site - i'm looking forward to learning more.

[morphius]

For $225, you could get a stunning pair of top quality 9.5 to 10mm white freshwater pearl earrings with rose overtone on heavy-weight 14k gold studs...if you're paying $225 for the whole lot (of what's pictured), I agree that it's possible they are all shell pearl...or lower quality fwp

[DerekJ]

Do the tooth test to check if they are shell pearls.

[KarinK]

Do the tooth test to check if they are shell pearls.

In case you're unfamiliar with it - it means rubbing the pearls gently either against a tooth or against each other. If they are pearls they should feel slightly gritty. Shell pearls will feel smooth.

You might want to look at some of the vendors from this site to compare prices before you buy anything from the pictures.

- Karin

[pearlescence]

Shell pearls are simply fake pearls dressed up in a fancy name to disguise the fact that they are fake pearls. They are beads painted with a sort of stuff which is based either on mother of pearl (south sea shell pearls use the shells from south sea pearl farming) or fish scales (majorcan /majorica pearls)

[Unusual Pearls]

i agree with what Sven said.

[Stan Liem]

They cannot be genuine south sea pearls unfortunately.

In Indonesia, where many SS pearls can be found, for 15mm+ diameter AAA SS pearl, it would have cost around 250 US dollars per GRAM (and 15mm pearl alone would be about 5 grams, so a single pearl costs roughly 1250 US dollars).