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How Surface Quality Affects a pearl's value

One of the main determiners of a pearl's value is the quality of its surface.  Most pearls have some kind of natural blemishes such as pits, bumbs, spots of other colors or dullness and tiny surface cracks.  The fewer of these imperfections a pearl has on its surface, the more valuable the pearl.  This is a very important factor in determining value because creative fine jewelers can work around a strange shape or a small size, but nothing can hide surface blemishes.

Poor Surface: The surfaces of these pearls are very flawed. You can see obvious pits, specs and conical protrusions.  The poor surface quality of these pearls greatly diminishes their value.	Fair Surface: The majority of the surface of this pearl is free of blemishes.  However, if you look closely, you will see it does have one very large circular patch of a slightly different color.  This might affect its durability and makes it much less valuable.	Pretty Good Surface:  Here is a pearl of excellent luster and shape.  It would be an extrememly valuable pearl if it weren't for the few pits and crevices you can see on its surface.  If it weren't for those, the price might even be double.	Perfect Surface:  This is a pearl with a perfect surface area.  You cannot see blemishes of any kind.  Only a pearl such as this- with high luster and a near perfect surface can be graded as AAA and command top prices.

Learn More About Pearls

How SIZE affects the value of  a pearl 
How SURFACE quality affects the value of  a pearl 
How LUSTER affects the value of  a pearl 
How SHAPE affects the value of a pearl
How MATCHING affects the value of pearl jewelry
How COLOR affects the value of a pearl
How the TYPE affects the value of a pearl
Pearl treatments, imitations and culture
Pearl meaning and symbology

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