The History of Coin Pearls
The history of natural pearls goes back more than 4,000 years according to the ancient Chinese text "The Shu King." The Western hemisphere's earliest reference to pearls is around 2,500 years ago by Homer, but the history of the coin pearl starts far more recently. Pearls were especially prized because they occurred so rarely in nature. This scarcity, however, quickly changed when man discovered how to make cultured pearls in the early 20th century.
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Origin
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The way to produce a cultured pearl was originally discovered in Japan. An oyster naturally produces a pearl when a grain of sand or some other small irritant accidentally enters the shell. As a defense mechanism, the oyster produces a pearl sac around this irritant and then coats it over a period of time with layers of nacre. This eventually becomes a pearl. Cultured pearls work on the same basis, except that the irritant is placed inside the mollusk on purpose.
History
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Kokichi Mikimoto is regarded as the innovator of the modern cultured pearl industry. The son of a noodle maker, he dedicated his life to producing perfect cultured pearls and marketing them. He started to experiment with different types of implants and discovered that American mussel shells made bigger and better pearls when implanted into oysters. This eventually led to different shapes of pearls.
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Shapes
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A necklace made of round pearls with mother of pearl disks. Round, flat discs of mother of pearl were implanted into mollusk shells and, when harvested, coin shaped pearls were revealed. These grew in popularity as they were cheaper than the traditional, round pearl and more versatile as they could be mounted, drilled from the side or through the middle. Cultivators expanded on the original coin shape and started creating many more forms such as tear-drop, baroque, cross and flower.
Time Frame
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The time to produce a coin-shaped pearl can be a long period, as the mollusk has to reach maturity, which is a time span of at least three years. It can then take another three years for a pearl to become fully formed after the implant has been inserted. Implants are often rejected, and the mollusk can fall prey to disease during this time so, on average, about 50 percent of a farmer's crop will not produce any pearls at all.
Warning
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Due to the length of time it takes to create a pearl, farmers often harvest their crop before full growth is reached, which can affect the quality of the pearl. Therefore, when buying coin pearls, always check the quality by ensuring the outline of the implant is not visible and then by holding it up to the light in order to make sure the nacre is thick. The quality of the nacre affects the value of the pearl.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit composition from pearls image by Ayvengo from Fotolia.com necklace of mother-of-pearl image by Lucy Cherniak from Fotolia.com
