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How to distinguish natural pearls. How to distinguish real pearls from fake: a combination of factors. Imitation pearl fake: what it looks like

Real natural pearl extremely rare and worth unthinkable money. Upon purchase, you will receive a warranty certificate. If we talk about cultured pearls, then these are pearls grown in artificial conditions and it is practically indistinguishable from the real one - for this it is necessary to carry out a gemological examination. It is about him that they say when they mean real pearl products, such pearls are used by jewelers. But there is an imitation of pearls, as a rule, we see it so often on store shelves. Products made from it are called costume jewelry, and cannot be called jewelry. For the first time, imitation pearls appeared in the 16th century in France. Iridescent glass was used to make empty balls, which were filled with a paste made from bleak fish scales. The cavity was filled with wax.

In the 20th century, imitation methods diversified, glass, celluloid, gelatin, mother-of-pearl pastes began to be used. Today, the largest manufacturer of such pearls is Mayorica, located in Spain.

Externally, imitation pearls are very similar to real ones. How to distinguish the original from a fake?
Pearls have a cold property, so they always stay cool. It is heavy, noticeably heavier than the imitation. Its surface is slightly rough, showing granular structures and growth layers. You can look at the hole in the pearl, the inside of the fake pearl is darker than the outside. In the area of ​​the hole, traces of paint and barely visible glass chips can be seen.
This is about the outside.

But differences can also be seen in physical properties pearls. Most elementary way- hold a pearl on the teeth. Real pearls will make a creaking sound. Another option is to swipe across the glass. Both a real and a fake pearl will leave a mark on the glass. That's only if the second is rubbed at the same time, then the first will remain safe and sound. You will get the same result by rubbing pearls against each other. Pearl dust will appear between them, but the surface will not be damaged. If you bring a flame to natural pearls for a couple of seconds, it will not even heat up. What will happen to the plastic fake, you can probably guess.

Some experts argue that artificial and even cultured pearls can be identified in one of the following ways:

1) Toss the ball over a flat, smooth surface. Natural pearls will bounce, and artificial pearls will remain on the surface;

2) Make a hole in a dense opaque material, with a diameter somewhat smaller than the pearl under study, which must be attached to this hole. Bring the leaf to a bright light, under which the dark core of a cultured pearl is noticeable, or a thin luminous layer of mother-of-pearl;

3) In an electromagnetic field, a cultured pearl will move, occupying a certain position, while a natural pearl will remain in place;

4) Under ultraviolet rays natural pearls glow blue color, and the artificial one is green.

Not everyone knows how to distinguish natural pearls from artificial ones. On the shelves jewelry stores you can see a lot of jewelry with mother-of-pearl balls. However, most of them are artificial. Every woman would like to have a string of real pearls with a deep noble shine. Pearls have been highly valued since ancient times. They are a symbol of wealth, high social status, elegance and fine taste. Modern technologies make it possible to create artificial pearls of such high quality that it is easy to confuse them with real ones.

Types of pearls

On formation sea ​​pearls the size of a pea can take the whole life of a mollusk, which lives about 13 years. After it is removed, the animal dies. To get a few large pearls, pearl divers often open and kill hundreds of animals. Due to mass destruction mollusks by the beginning of the 20th century, their populations declined sharply. Therefore, it is not easy to find natural wild pearls for sale.

Currently, about 80% of jewelry is made from cultured pearls. Cultured stone is also grown in shellfish. A foreign body is artificially introduced into the body of an animal, forcing it to form a protective shell. To speed up the process of "birth" of a pearl and make it larger, it is used as foreign body ball required size. It is usually carved from a layer of mother-of-pearl. After 3-5 years, layers of mollusk secretion appear on the dense core. A cultured pearl differs little from a real one, since it is formed in the same conditions as a wild one. And in the middle of it is a natural mother of pearl.

Inexpensive artificial pearls are most often made of plastic, selenite and alabaster. A pearly surface on it is created by applying 4-5 layers chemical substances. For the production of expensive fakes (organic pearls), modern technology. It mimics the process that takes place inside a mollusk. On a frosted glass ball (opaline crystal) is applied thin layers pearl essence. Each layer is carefully polished. Thanks to the layering technology, it is possible to achieve the same iridescent overflow as that of a wild pearl. Despite high quality making artificial pearls, there are ways to distinguish real pearl.

Evaluation of the appearance of a pearl

Wild stones are extremely rare perfect shape spheres. They can be elongated, like a grain of rice, like a drop, or like a flattened sphere. On the surface of natural pearls, there are usually bulges or depressions. Jewels of an unusual bizarre shape are called baroque or semi-baroque. They are used mainly for insertion into rings, brooches or pendants.

If the beads of the jewelry are perfectly round and have the same size, it is highly likely that they are of artificial origin. To check whether the pearl has the correct spherical shape, you need to put it on an inclined surface with a slight angle. A perfectly round bead will roll straight ahead. Ball irregular shape will change the trajectory.

A sign of high-quality natural stone is a deep shine. If you direct a light source on its surface, a dazzlingly shining dot will appear on it. The rest of the balloon will be darkened. On a wild pearl, the boundary between the illuminated and shaded surface is clearly visible. To assess the brilliance of a jewel, it must be viewed against a white background.

It should be borne in mind that low-quality natural pearls may not have enough bright luster. Therefore, this characteristic of the jewel should not be decisive.

When evaluating jewelry, you need to pay attention to the glare of the stone. They are reflections of a different hue that appear around an illuminated point on the surface. Glare in white natural pearls most often have a pale pink color or color Ivory. Although sometimes there is a white pearl with black highlights. Fake glare is very difficult. Therefore, their presence is one of the signs of the natural origin of the stone.

To distinguish a cultured pearl from a wild one, you need to open the lock of the necklace and take it by one end. The brilliance of the stones is assessed by slowly rotating the thread in front of a bright light source. At certain points in time, when a beam of light falls at the right angle, the radiance of the mother-of-pearl base ball will be noticeable.

Evaluation of a hole in a pearl

If the pearls are strung on a string, you need to carefully examine the edges of the hole. At natural decoration the edge line is even, and the hole itself looks like a regular cylinder. The exception is antique pearls. Due to the natural aging of the stone and its wear, the edges of the holes in it may have chips and scuffs. If the holes on the new product are rounded or uneven, it is fake. The presence of chips on the edge of the hole can be a sign of cultured pearls. On plastic beads near the thread, peeling of the top coating or its absence will be noticeable.

The inner surface of the hole will tell about the origin of pearls. The presence of several layers or the absence of mother-of-pearl indicates artificial origin stone. Inner surface holes in natural stone is entirely made of mother-of-pearl. It also has layers, but they are not so pronounced. The color saturation of the layer of real pearls changes towards the center. Near the surface, the color of the layers is almost white. As you get closer to the center, the layers become more yellow or brown.

The fact that the pearls are cultured is evidenced by a wider hole in the bead. If you examine it with a jewelry magnifier, you can find a black stripe separating the layer formed by the mollusk from the layer of a dense core embedded in its body. The band consists of conchiolin. It appears as a result of a protective reaction of the mollusk to the forcible introduction of a foreign body.

Evaluation of other characteristics of pearls

Many people do not know how to distinguish pearls from fakes while in the store. Not all outlets have sufficient lighting to evaluate the external characteristics of the decoration. In this case, you need to pick it up and estimate the weight. Real stones are heavy for their size. To understand how weighty they are, the product must be compared with an ornament that is accurately made from natural or artificial pearls. It is best to use an expensive certified product for comparison.

Real stone is cool. When the necklace is on the neck, it cools the skin. long time. Feelings after contact natural product resemble those that a person feels when stepping barefoot on a marble floor. artificial decoration can also cause chills on the skin. However, the effect is not so pronounced and disappears faster. If in doubt, you need to compare the sensations by trying on a certified product.

You can determine the origin of pearls by rubbing them together. Fake stones will easily slide over each other's surface. natural surface a little rough. It will create a barely perceptible friction. After the experiment, you need to look at the skin of the fingers. The upper mother-of-pearl layer of wild stone is easily destroyed. After rubbing against the surface of another pearl, mother-of-pearl particles will remain on the skin in the form of a barely noticeable powder. If the skin is clean, most likely the product is fake. If a scratch appears after checking, the surface should be rubbed with a pad thumb. After this manipulation, the scratch will disappear.

Evaluate the quality of the product with your teeth. The pearl is carefully clamped with two fingers and bitten. Then you need to rub the stone a little, moving the jaws from side to side. If the stone is real, the roughness of the surface will be felt. Friction on mother-of-pearl is a bit like the creaking of sand on the teeth. Food particles left on the teeth can distort the results. For the purity of the experiment, you must first brush your teeth. During the check, you need to be careful not to accidentally swallow the bead.

It is not worth evaluating someone else's pearls with your teeth. Better to use alternative ways determining the origin of the bead.

Professional Pearl Appraisal Methods

You can check the authenticity of pearls with a jewelry magnifier 30x-21 mm. But it is better to examine its surface under a microscope with a magnification of more than 64 times. On natural stone relief layers will be noticeable, a bit reminiscent of the surface of the desert. They give the upper layer of the pearl a roughness. The surface of the artificial stone is grainy. It looks more like the cratered surface of the moon. Surface swellings are characteristic of cultivated stone.

You can check the quality of the jewelry using an X-ray machine. Under x-rays, a real pearl will have a gray translucent tint. artificial stones will be white on the negative and black on the positive.

The level of refraction of the light beam on the surface of the pearl is examined with a refractometer. Light passing through the stone is split into two beams with different refraction. These rays are recorded by a refractometer. For all natural precious stones the minimum and maximum refractive indices are determined. The difference between the two indicators is a special value - birefringence. The birefringence of natural pearls is 0.14 (1.66 - 1.52). Black pearls have slightly different characteristics. Its birefringence is 0.16 (1.69 - 1.53). To accurately determine the origin of pearls, it is best to use all available methods checks.

It is not always possible to examine a stone and find out the nature of its origin. Not knowing how to determine the authenticity of pearls, it is better to contact a specialist. Experienced gemologists are able to determine the quality and origin of gemstones only by their appearance. They also have necessary equipment for check. The disadvantage of this evaluation method is high price specialist services. However, it is not comparable to the importance of determining the quality of a jewel, which costs much more.

What to avoid

Not knowing how to identify real pearls, you should not resort to dubious methods of verification. It is widely believed that one can identify a fake stone by heating it over an open fire. After contact with flames, the fake will light up and melt. Many people believe that natural pearls will not be damaged by heat.

If the bead is made of plastic, the fire will cause the material to melt. However, if the stone is made of selenite, alabaster, or layered with pearl essence, it will not melt. At the same time, fire can cause serious damage to natural jewelry in just a few seconds. When heated, pearls deform and lose their luster. Therefore, such an experiment can lead to damage to a valuable item. It should also be noted that pearls are a good conductor heat and may cause severe burns.

This article is addressed to those who have doubts about the quality of the acquired pearl jewelry or want to gain important knowledge before buying a piece of jewelry. We will tell you how to check the authenticity of pearls at home and even in a store.

5 methods for checking pearls

Natural and cultured pearls are considered real, a fake is a glass or plastic bead coated with a layer of mother-of-pearl.

  1. We look carefully.

Examine the pearl different angles vision. Real mother-of-pearl has a non-uniform shade, hence the beautiful overflows, glare. It is even easier to see the transitions of mother-of-pearl tones by placing pearls in a container with clean water.

The shape of the beads will not be perfectly even, small surface defects are possible. And here fake pearl demonstrates the perfection of form, the same size and color of the beads in the jewelry. It is also good to compare jewelry, the authenticity of which there is no doubt, with those that need to be checked. The differences will be immediately noticeable.


  1. Let's try it on the tooth.

Bite lightly on the pearl with your front incisors and slide it gently between your teeth. Must be created feeling light roughness. If the bead is absolutely smooth, this is a sign of a fake. Just keep in mind that the teeth must be cleaned and you can not put too much pressure on the pearls, as there is a risk of damaging the mother-of-pearl. Be careful not to swallow the pearl.

It will not work to verify the authenticity of the stone in the ring in this way, because at least two pearls are needed for the experiment. But to subject beads, a bracelet or make sure that you got high-quality pearls on earrings is quite realistic. If the beads slide easily when rubbing against each other and there is no mother-of-pearl dust left on them, then you have a fake. Real pearls, when rubbed, create resistance, which results in a quiet rustling. On their surface remains white footprint mother-of-pearl "powder", which disappears as soon as you run your finger over the bead.

  1. Feel and compare.

If possible, compare an obvious fake and a supposedly real pearl of the same diameter. The imitation will be smoother and lighter than the real gem. In addition, real pearls are cool.

  1. We arm ourselves with a microscope or a magnifying glass.

A technically enhanced look will allow you to see the structure of mother-of-pearl. The surface of a real pearl under a magnifying glass resembles a labyrinth or fish scales, while a fake pearl has a grainy texture.

Using a magnifying device, you can also examine the hole in the bead. Small scratches around it indicate the authenticity of the pearl, and on imitation the surface will be flawlessly smooth if the bead is new. On an old fake, when the mother-of-pearl is worn out, a plastic or glass base will be visible. Another sign of real pearls is the dividing line of the core and mother-of-pearl clearly visible in the hole.

Important to consider

Technologies for the production of imitations are actively developing, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify fake pearls.

How more methods you apply when checking, the more signs of authenticity or imitation you will find.

None of the proposed methods, and even their complex use does not give a 100% guarantee of detecting a fake. If you want to receive exact result, talk to professional jeweler or an expert gemologist. It is very important to take into account.

  • ATTENTION: when checking, be extremely careful - there is a risk of damaging the jewelry.

Pearls are one of the oldest gemstones. It is unique in that it has an organogenic origin. in natural, vivo it is extracted from the shell of a pearl oyster - a mollusk a certain kind(for each type of pearl - its own mollusk).

Due to the rarity and high cost of pearls, they are often imitated. Imitation pearl There are different types, and it is considered a fake only if it is issued as genuine with a corresponding increase in price.

Gold vintage brooch with white mother-of-pearl and pearls

We will figure out how to distinguish real pearls from artificial ones at home.

Terminology

To identify real pearls, you need to know which pearls are considered natural. It is divided into the following types:


Fake pearls are considered to be only imitations made of stone, glass or plastic, less often the Mallorca product, which is passed off as a natural expensive mineral.

Please note: cultured pearls are not fake!

Let's figure out how to check the authenticity of jewelry when buying.

Basic verification methods

You can check for authenticity at home using one of the following methods or a combination of them.

Verification methods are divided into:

  • visual;
  • mechanical;
  • chemical and physical;
  • formal.

Let's figure out how to identify natural pearls with their help.

Visual verification methods

They include an assessment appearance, color, shape, surface finish and weight of the pearl product.


 pearl necklace

The shape of a natural gem is most often slightly irregular. Pearls are slightly elongated, elliptical, ovoid or pear-shaped. Perfect round beads rare, mostly used in earrings or rings. Most of them are cultivated. Wild spherical pearls are so expensive that they are sold at auctions like large diamonds. Therefore, if you are offered beads made of spherical pearls for less than a few thousand rubles, this is a fake. Even cultured round pearls are not so cheap.

The color and shade of the bead can be white, pink, yellowish, silvery, green, blue, purple, black. The further away from white (excluding yellow), and the brighter color the more expensive.

You can distinguish a real "gift of the sea" from a fake by the play of light: mother-of-pearl gives a specific game - play of pink, yellow and blue shades. This phenomenon is due to the interference of light, the beads seem to glow. Fake pearls and any imitations, except Mallorca, do not possess this quality.

The surface texture of this mineral is uneven, slightly rough, it has "spots" with greater or lesser brilliance. Natural pearls are characterized by color heterogeneity. By this sign, you can also distinguish a fake: its color is always the same.

If the bead is drilled, then look under a magnifying glass at the edges near the hole. If a darker core is visible there, it is a fake. Also, at the hole, you can sometimes notice scratches on the paint, or vice versa - its smudges. A 10x magnifying glass will help to distinguish even specks of dye.


 sea ​​pearl

Pearls, ennobled by radioactive radiation, acquire a dark gray or black color. In this way, imitations of valuable black sea pearls are made from cheap river pearls. It is applicable only for non-nuclear freshwater pearls. If you irradiate the sea, then the changes will affect only the core, which will darken and begin to shine through the mother-of-pearl.

A mineral “ennobled” by x-ray is determined by its color - it acquires a metallic shade, unnatural for nature.

Also pay attention to the weight. In this way, it is easier to check prefabricated products - necklaces, beads or bracelets. They must have a sufficiently large mass, since pearls are a heavy mineral. How more beads on the thread, the heavier the product. Plastic is much lighter than a natural mineral; in comparison with it, it seems weightless. Glass is also lighter in weight.

Please note: this method does not work with imitations of black germanite pearls or pink coral pearls.

They are approximately equal in weight to a real product from the "seafood" or exceed it. To find out a genuine product, you need to compare it in other parameters with any of the already tested ones.

Mechanical methods

They are based on the mechanical characteristics of this mineral. This is a dense substance with low hardness - up to 4 Mohs units. Low hardness allows you to check the pearls on the tooth - if you bite it lightly, you will feel fine pearl powder on your tongue and teeth and hear a creak. This good way recognize natural pearls, but may not work in the case of Mallorca.

The disadvantage of this, as well as some other mechanical methods, is that the experiment can only be carried out at home, on an already purchased piece of jewelry. The jewelry store will not allow you to do this.

Second mechanical way- friction. The beads must be rubbed against each other. There will be some pearlescent powder. The method does not work with Mallorca, which is covered with true mother-of-pearl, even if not from nature.


 Mechanical verification of pearls for authenticity

The third method is a strength test. The bead is dropped on hard surface. Minor impact marks will remain on the natural one - scratches or bruises, which are easily smoothed out with a finger. There will be no damage on glass or plastic (except for glass cracking). Also, the lightweight plastic will bounce off the table like a ball, which is not the case with a pearl.

Chemical-physical

These ways to distinguish a gem from a fake are based on some chemical properties natural pearls.

For example, it has low thermal conductivity, that is, it heats up very slowly. Beads or necklaces made of this stone remain cold for a long time even on human skin, while glass or plastic jewelry quickly heats up from body heat.


 pearl beads

If you have doubts about the authenticity of the purchased jewelry, you can agree with a familiar radiologist and place it in an X-ray machine. This method should be carried out only on one bead from the entire thread, since as a result of irradiation it can change color to black. But the picture allows you to distinguish the internal structure of the mineral - the number of layers, density, the presence of a core, and the like.

A harmless way to check is the clearance of the bead ultraviolet lamp(for example, to check banknotes). natural mineral will give a bluish glow, all imitations - green or none.

Also, if you put a pearl in a fire, nothing will happen to it in a couple of minutes. But the plastic will melt and catch fire, and the glass will crack.

A 100% method of destructive control is to place the pearl in vinegar. For this, as well as for x-rays, it is worth choosing only one bead from the thread, since vinegar will dissolve it in a few minutes (depending on size). If this is Mallorca, there will be a glass core. Nothing will happen with an all-glass or plastic imitation.

Formal

These are rather ways not of verification, but of insurance against deception. The first one is the price. A natural mineral is expensive. For comparison: beads made from the least valuable white freshwater pearls of irregular shape will cost no less than 2-3 thousand rubles (depending on the length of the thread). One pearl of high-quality imitation of the Mallorca brand with a caliber of 10-15 mm costs the same amount. cultured pearl round shape with a diameter of 15 mm costs about one and a half thousand, but not rubles, but dollars, pear-shaped or elliptical - about a thousand overseas money.

You need to buy jewelry with this mineral only in the salons of well-known jewelry companies that value their reputation. For the product, you need to ask for a quality certificate or certificate.

Instruction

Strictly speaking, two types can be attributed to real pearls at once - natural and cultured pearls. The International Federation of Jewelry, Silver, Diamonds, Pearls and Stones (CIBJO) in 2006 released a 46 page document "Natural, cultured and imitation pearls - terminology and classification, including information on modifications". In it, she defined natural pearls as “natural formations obtained by chance, without human intervention,” and subdivided cultured pearls into four different types. Only specialist gemologists can determine the difference between natural and cultured pearls, and even more so half cultured pearls from composite cultured pearls, and then with the help of special equipment. We can, with a certain degree of probability, find out whether the pearl is natural or a good imitation.

Even imitation pearls - made from a glass bead of opaque glare, waxed on the inside and covered on the outside with forty layers of "pearl essence" - will not have that soft, iridescent brilliance and glow coming from the inside, which jewelers call "orientation".

Drop the item with pearls on a smooth surface from a small height. Natural pearls will not only bounce, but will also bounce like a ball. Fear not, the layered structure of natural pearls will not allow them to get any damage.

Study the shape of pearls - nature never copies itself from the ideal. Natural pearls will be slightly different from one another. Also, their shape will not be perfect - tiny growths, small bumps, pits. Even plain pearls in a necklace will have some overtones.

Under a strong magnifying glass, the surface of natural pearls is smooth, but on it, as it were, “layers” of mother-of-pearl are visible, artificial pearls are perfectly smooth. Rub the pearls against each other - natural pearls will cling to bumps and creak, artificial pearls will slide.

If you already own natural pearls, compare similar pieces by weight. Natural pearls are generally much heavier than artificial pearls, but there are exceptions for very expensive imitations.

This method is also not suitable for high-end imitations and outright fraud - look at the clasp on a necklace or, or on the setting of rings and earrings. Expensive natural pearls will never coexist with cheap metals. The more skillfully the clasp on the necklace is made, the greater the guarantee that you have natural pearls in your hands.

Pay attention to the holes in the beads. In artificial pearls they are wider and look like funnels, in the present they are trying to make them as small and flat as possible - after all, pearls are sold by weight! Also, in the artificial, they will be symmetrical and accurate, because they are drilled mechanically. In natural pearls, holes are drilled by hand and not through, but first from one side, then from the other side. That's noticeable.

Real pearls will be cool for a few seconds after you pick them up. Artificial pearls based on glass beads will warm up longer, pearls made of resins and plastics will warm up instantly.

Standard sizes pearls do not exceed 8 millimeters. From 8 to 14 millimeters - medium pearls, from 14 to 16 - large, those above 16 millimeters - exceptional. It follows from this that pearls larger than 16 millimeters are inherited from the great-grandmother, or sold in products from eminent