Found a Quahog Pearl!

by Rachel
(Columbus, NJ)

We were vacationing in Onset, MA, earlier this week and went clamming in the bay. We pulled up 20 or 30 hard-shelled clams, feeling them with our toes, and pulling them up with our fingers. We ate the small ones raw, on the half-shell, and to my surprise found this pearl in one of them! Luckily I didn't bite down too hard!

We really didn't know what we'd found(my 8 yr old had just asked me the day before if it was possible to find a pearl in a clam, and I had said 'no'!), and upon beginning to research it, we at first thought it was not too exceptional. I took it to a local jeweler who told me they were a dime-a-dozen, and the local corner house found them all the time when shucking clams. Another local jeweler didn't even think that you could find a pearl in a clam. But after looking into it a bit more, I think we may have something special.

It is 0.25 inches across, and is brownish/purple on one side purple in between, and cream colored on the other side. It is almost perfectly spherical.

I'm open to any suggestions on where to take it to be appraised!