How to Tell If Pearls Are Real

Origins are important!

Got a pretty new necklace for the holidays? Find out whether it's real in just a few simple steps!

Things You'll Need

• Pearl necklace
• Teeth
• Can of Coke
• Drinking glass
• Vinegar (optional)

Instructions

1. Decide what your definition of "real" pearls is. See tip below.

2. Run your pearls over the biting edge of your teeth. If they feel smooth, they're probably fakes. If they don't feel smooth, you'll want to keep testing.

3. Take your pearls to a local jeweler - or even an upscale pawn shop. Trained jewelers can spot fakes and can give you a general estimate of how much your pearls are worth - or can tell you where to go to find out. Don't feel foolish asking them - it's their job to know.

4. If you don't live near anyone who can help you with your pearls and you can't tell whether they feel smooth or not against your teeth, decide exactly how badly you want to know whether your pearls are real or fake. Because the next step in figuring out your pearls' true identity is to try to destroy one.

5. Making sure you have thick-soled shoes on, stamp firmly on a pearl. If it shatters underfoot, it's glass.

6. If your pearl survives the crush test, you decide you want to continue testing and you're ok with some sacrifice, cut a pearl off your necklace and drop it in a drinking glass.

7. 

   Pour a few ounces of Coke over the pearl and let it sit for a day or two. Pearls dissolve in acids even as mild as those found in Coca Cola, so if the one you dropped in dissolves, then your pearls are real.

8. Take your remaining necklace to friend or jeweler and ask them to re-knot it for you. Regardless of whether your pearls are fakes, cultured, or all-natural, wear them with pride. How will anyone else ever know unless they happen to spill a can of Coke on your clavicle? :)

Tips & Warnings

• Many pearls on the market, especially those that go into less expensive jewelry, are cultured. This means that the oyster that made the pearl was artificially impregnated with a foreign object - usually a piece of sand or grit - by an oyster farmer. While the process that creates the pearl is the same, cultured pearls generally cost less than natural pearls because natural pearls are rarer and are usually found instead of created.

• You can also perform the pearl dissolve test with vinegar. Complete steps 6-7 with a half glass of vinegar in place of Coke.

• Perform the crush test with extreme caution! Glass can shatter and send little powdered bits flying everywhere, and if your pearl IS real you might slip when it rolls underfoot.

• You may be tempted to make like Cleopatra, but drinking dissolved pearls is not recommended.