Pearl Value Factors: Judging and Evaluating Pearls

Thanks to aggressive publicity campaigns sponsored by the diamond industry, anyone buying a diamond can confidently go into the transaction armed with enough information to ask the right questions. In the pre-purchase stage, youll likely query the seller about the five Cs: carat, cut, clarity, color and cost. As long as you trust the jeweler, you can be confident about the value of the gem youre interested in based on his or her answers. But what about pearls? What questions do you ask? What does a high quality pearl look like? What are traits to avoid? Here well tell you what makes a pearl valuable. Well also give you questions to ask your jeweler and tools to judge these lustrous gems yourself.

Pearl Value Factors
While there is no international standard for grading pearls, there is a system that is commonly used to evaluate these beautiful colored gemstones. Developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the worlds largest non-profit institute of gemological research and learning, this grading system considers seven pearl traits when determining value. They are: size, shape, color, luster, surface quality, nacre quality, and matching. Lets take a...