Yup, first of all scratch your teeth slightly on a pearl.
When it feels rough, it’s a real one ;)

Great tips to follow (thanks here too)

Here is a website that will tell you more on how to determine if your pearl is real or [URL removed]
[URL removed]

I think real pearls are not too shiny and they are not completely round but have a natural off roundness to them. Faux pearls are very shiney and are perfectly round. My thoughts anyways

From [URL removed]

Rub the pearl against your teeth. You may be able to tell this way as real pearls are supposedly rough while fakes are smooth. This is not the most reliable method as you can find smooth real pearls and rough fakes.

Hold the pearl up to the sunlight or very bright indoor lighting. You can check for variations in the pearl’s color and tone. If it’s perfect in its color and tone, it’s very likely fake.

Look at the pearl through the magnifying glass. You should be able to see the ridges and irregularities of a real pearl, or the grainy smoothness of a fake.

Weigh the pearl. Real ones are usually heavier than fakes (Exception to this are the glass pearl beads from the 1940’s and 50’s they are heavier}.

Test the warmth of the pearl. Resin and plastic pearls are often warm on first contact. Glass pearls take longer to warm in your hand than real ones.

Check the drill holes. Real pearls are drilled as small as possible to maintain their value, so fakes will often have larger holes. Also, the pearl surface, or nacre, will often flake off around the holes of fakes.

Check the pearl’s shape. If it’s a perfect sphere, it’s likely a fake.

Freshwater pearls are usually irregular in shape. I have not seen many that are round (but I suppose they could be).

I’d ask my jeweler. As long as you don’t want an appraisal, and you explain you inherited them and just want to know if they are real or not, they will usually take a look and tell you for free. Tell the jeweler you are trying to figure out if you need to insure them or not. I did that when 2nd husband’s mother passed away, she has some real jewelry and some costume. I didn’t know one from the other.

Thanks for all the great responses. Very helpful to me.

The best is to rub them on your teeth you can feel the grit of the pearl, now this will not work if you have false teeth of course lol, as for telling by shape that is a lot harder because you have different types and each has a shape, the round smooth is most likely a cultured they are still real but started by man then the shell fish takes over, then you have the odd misshapen Baroque pearls they can be large kind of round with blips and other malformation on them or small and look kind of like rice crispys these are the fresh waters, plus Pearls can come a all kinds of colors.

yes, I agree with the above responses – Best Wishes!

I look carefully along the strand, particularly around the drill holes, to see if any ‘coating’ has flaked off and exposed the ‘glass’. If I can find those places, its a pretty easy call. If I can’t, then it is the teeth thing and a judgment call based on the pearls’ shape. If I think I’ve got a live one, I toddle to the jeweler’s.

Only fresh water pearls that are ‘turned’ are round, and this is only a recent practice by grower, and those pearls would cost you several hundreds…serioulsy.
Those who said that pearls are irregular, are exactly correct. In all the time I have worked with pearls…I have had ONE round one. one.
Also…I have very old…vintage ‘pearls’ strung and knotted, but they are not real, so you can’t go by the string or not.
Your best bet truly would be to see a trusted jewelry, you never know where they came from originally.
good luck.

One of the easiest ways to distinguish a faux pearl from a real pearl doesn’t even involve rubbing it against your teeth, but just looking at a group of pearls. If you place a collection of pearls, such as those in a necklace, under a bright light, the color and sheen of the pearls becomes much more obvious. Natural pearls will have slight variations in the coloring, and the shine may be more intense on some, while faux pearls will be almost identical in their coloring.

Wild mother of pearl quality pearl is the pearl mussels mollusks around the deposits by the formation of a stimulus. When external stimuli in vivo foreign body into the pearl mussels exposed to mantle channel, nacre layer by layer it will be wrapped up to form a pearl. Nacre mainly by the skin and overlapping levels of aragonite crystals arranged in vertical concentric circles of growth layers, so Pearl is a substance composed of two radial spherules. When light shines into the pearl layer, due to the overlapping of different refractive index horny and aragonite, reflecting the light waves will be superimposed with each other to produce optical interference effect, resulting in pearl with unique soft and iridescent pearl luster color halo.

Cultured pearls began in China. Is the largest producer of cultured pearls in Japan, China followed. Into sea water cultured pearls cultured pearls and freshwater pearls. Sea water pearls are pearls cultivated using a nuclear method. Calculated as the mother cut the clam’s foot touch a ditch, into a small pearl beads for a bag beads and fabric, nacre secreted by the female mussel, the formation of the pearl wrapped round pearls. Freshwater pearls are divided into nuclear and nuclear-free cultured pearls cultured pearls. Nucleated cultured pearls and the same sea water cultured pearls, freshwater pearls from Japanese nuclear initiative, known as the Lake Biwa beads. Method is to remove small pieces of pearl mussel mantle body, cut into 5mm square diaphragm, mother of pearl beads inserted into the mantle of education, the diaphragm in the sterile tissue fluid in the pearl mussel survival. Diaphragm and the female to be together long after the clam mantle, there is no gap to form a pearl sac, mother of pearl mussels secrete the growth of mass in the capsule gradually formed. Seedless pearls cultured pearls from the center is empty, a sterile pearl pearl mussel can produce hundreds of grains. Fresh water pearls and sea pearls The main difference is that in the physical production of fresh water for each lot of pearl mussels and there is no solid core, the same point of Chinese cultured pearls and crystals and more parallel. A large number of pearls sold on the market there are three types of [URL removed] wax filling the glass, solid glass and plastic beads coated imitation. These imitation immersed in “Eastern Spice” in the can produce the same as the pearl luster, this spice is usually a guanine in nitrocellulose suspension. This method makes use of imitation in appearance very much like natural pearls. Natural pearls and cultured pearls instrument identification Natural pearls and cultured pearls is difficult to identify the two features of similar appearance alone is difficult to distinguish between the naked eye, measuring instruments Kam is also complex. At present, the proportion method, cone method, endoscopy, X-radiography and X-ray fluorescence combination of law, and the single use of a method is also more difficult to determine which X-ray radiography and X-ray fluorescence method is a combination of A conclusive test, but the identification of high cost. Individuals to buy pearls, generally do not use this method of identification. Here are few of the more convincingly natural pearls and cultured pearls in the identification.

â‘  endoscopic method

Divided into single-lens endoscope and double mirror method, but more serious drawback is the need to identify the beads must be penetrated before a single test. Single endoscope method With exposure to strong light source directly from the side of the Pearl to check the perforated wall of the pearl. Light reflected to the mirror through the wall of pearls, and is reflected in the mirror polish to the focus of the microscope. The case of natural pearls, the observer is able to see the layers of concentric circles, until the center of Pearl, and the brightness of light, gradually weakened; the case of cultured pearls, the scope of concentric circles like the pearl nucleus suddenly, and the brightness decreased rapidly. Double microscopy Double mirror method uses a hollow needle, needle extension of two mirrors and direction at 45 ° angle, 90 ° angle to each other. Careful using this method is almost one hundred percent effective. Specific [URL removed] the hollow needle mounted on a strong light source in front of the light directly through the hollow needle to the first mirror, light reflected by the mirror to the wall of perforated pearls. If the pearls are cultured, the light will be spread along many parallel layers, until the light through thin mother of pearl shell quality; if natural pearls, pearls of light directly through the hole, until the second mirror shine, reflecting the microscope inside. This is because natural pearls, when the light projected onto the wall when perforated pearls, mother of pearl quality of light in concentric circles around the pearl within the transmission to start hitting the wall of light are the result of total reflection. ② X-ray diffraction X-ray natural pearls irradiation, in any location, the resulting diffraction pattern has six symmetrical, hexagonal pattern that emerged is the spot. Cultured pearls only in a position to generate six diffraction symmetry map. In this position, if the pearls rotate 90 °, will have four symmetrical map. This approach is that the thickness of a large mother of pearl quality cultured pearls, in most of the six directions that can produce graphics, and nuclear testing when the freshwater pearls and natural pearls can not be distinguished. ③ X-ray photography Identified by X-ray photography pearls, can determine the entire string of pearls. In natural pearls, on the X-ray absorption depends on the thickness of nacre quality, because it is uniform objects. Natural pearls are using X-ray ray transmission photographs of several micro-level will appear, and cultured pearls with mother of pearl in the nuclear matter is very clear dividing line between, because the mother of pearl shell nuclear matrix layer near the light transmission is good. If there is no solid core cultured pearl, often in near the center of a black worm-like spots. ④ fluorescence X-ray fluorescence method is often combined with, and when they are combined with the most accurate conclusion. In the X-ray, all cultured pearls will fluoresce. However, natural pearls, the only natural freshwater pearls and natural pearls will be some of Australia fluoresce. The test results coupled with the fluorescent X-ray photos carefully study the information provided can accurately identify a single pearl beads and similar.