MSilvia
Contributor
Associated Press
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. - A clam that a Portsmouth couple thought was rotten turned out to hold a rare gem: a purple pearl that could be worth lots of money.
It happened earlier this month when Barbara Krensavage brought home about four dozen quahogs from a Newport seafood restaurant. Her husband, Thaddeus or "Ted," was shucking them when he came across one he thought was diseased. Upon closer inspection, the couple found the pearl.
"We're finding out there's only a handful on earth," Barbara Krensavage said. "We were excited, biting it and everything."
Some experts estimate that only 1 in 100,000 quahog clams contains a pearl, and 1 in 20 of those pearls is of gem quality. That puts the odds on the Krensavages' find at 1 in 2 million, according to The Providence Journal.
Antoinette Matlins, author of "The Pearl Book: the Definitive Buying Guide," said the Krensavages' pearl, perfectly round and about the size of a large pea, might be valued in the thousands of dollars, though she hasn't seen it. But that estimate could rise depending on the value of two purple quahog pearls featured in a $14 brooch bought five years ago by the partner of Newport antique dealer Alan Golash.
The brooch is included in the American Museum of Natural History's international pearl exhibit, now in Japan. The exhibition will move to Australia for much of 2006, and then to the Persian Gulf and London in 2007.
"You might sell something now for $20,000 or $25,000, which seems like a huge amount for a single pearl," Matlins said, "but then somebody might turn around and bid $1 million for the Alan Golash pearl. Then, the person who sold it for $20,000 or $25,000 would be kicking themselves."
The couple have set the gem in a gold ring _ at least for now.
"If it's worth $10,000, we'll probably keep it, it'll be a family treasure," Ted Krensavage said. "But if it's worth more than a quarter million, we might put it up for auction."
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. - A clam that a Portsmouth couple thought was rotten turned out to hold a rare gem: a purple pearl that could be worth lots of money.
It happened earlier this month when Barbara Krensavage brought home about four dozen quahogs from a Newport seafood restaurant. Her husband, Thaddeus or "Ted," was shucking them when he came across one he thought was diseased. Upon closer inspection, the couple found the pearl.
"We're finding out there's only a handful on earth," Barbara Krensavage said. "We were excited, biting it and everything."
Some experts estimate that only 1 in 100,000 quahog clams contains a pearl, and 1 in 20 of those pearls is of gem quality. That puts the odds on the Krensavages' find at 1 in 2 million, according to The Providence Journal.
Antoinette Matlins, author of "The Pearl Book: the Definitive Buying Guide," said the Krensavages' pearl, perfectly round and about the size of a large pea, might be valued in the thousands of dollars, though she hasn't seen it. But that estimate could rise depending on the value of two purple quahog pearls featured in a $14 brooch bought five years ago by the partner of Newport antique dealer Alan Golash.
The brooch is included in the American Museum of Natural History's international pearl exhibit, now in Japan. The exhibition will move to Australia for much of 2006, and then to the Persian Gulf and London in 2007.
"You might sell something now for $20,000 or $25,000, which seems like a huge amount for a single pearl," Matlins said, "but then somebody might turn around and bid $1 million for the Alan Golash pearl. Then, the person who sold it for $20,000 or $25,000 would be kicking themselves."
The couple have set the gem in a gold ring _ at least for now.
"If it's worth $10,000, we'll probably keep it, it'll be a family treasure," Ted Krensavage said. "But if it's worth more than a quarter million, we might put it up for auction."
I have a quahog pearl that is white and about the size of the head of one of those round pins and it's flat on one side. I found it in a cherrystone I ate probably about 12 years ago. Now I'll have to go find it and take a picture.
