Bit down on this while eating oysters at my favorite watering hole. Lost half a tooth in the process. Due to it's size and shape, i was wondering if there is any value in it?.
Jeremy Shepherd, founder of PearlParadise.com and the treasurer on the board of the CPAA, points out that while the diner’s find is an exciting one, it’s actually a non-nacreous calcareous concretion and not a valuable pearl because it is not composed of nacre—the substance that gives pearls their luster and shine.
“Anytime people find a ‘pearl’ in an edible oyster, there won’t be much value to it because of the oyster variety,” he says. “Nacreous pearls are only produced by mollusks from the Pteriidae family, so the ‘pearl’ this man found is not really a pearl in the true sense of the word,” he explains. “It’s really a curiosity.”
Shepherd would place its value at $200–$400—less than the $2,000–$4,000 figure quoted in the newspaper.
“It’s still an exciting find, but it doesn’t have the qualities of valuable pearls because it’s not from a Pteriidae or pearl-producing mollusk,” Shepherd says.