Mystery low grade pearls - Freshwater vs South Sea

Silverpaperplate

-Rikke and Rebecca
Joined
Aug 25, 2025
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4
Hello! I just joined this amazing forum on behalf of myself and my sister. We recently came across and bought some amazing low grade pearls.
The seller claimed they are "Southern China sea pearls" but didn't specify any further. Intriguing! We have been doing some research online and doubt they are South Sea Pearls, even though the seller did say the colour was rare for this type of pearl. They are quite large, between 11 - 17 mm. Any advice is deeply appreciated.
 

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They appear to be cultured Chinese freshwater pearls-- yes, low grade. The colors are common and occur naturally in fwp.
Some appear to have a bead nucleus, as the bead is visible where there is no nacre.
Thank you SO much for this reply! This is exactly the kind of info we were hoping for! So the nacre is quite thin for the bead nucleus to show so easily?
 
If you look at the areas where there is no nacre, the adjacent nacre does appear to be thin.

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Cheers, very helpful! And jshepherd, thank you for your confirmation regarding value and type.
Fortunately they weren't an expensive purchase, and I suppose the idea is to see if there's a market for pearls as specimens rather than for jewelry in our country. It'll be an exciting experiment for sure!
 
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