When They Comment on Your Pearls… Be Ready to Dazzle With a Fun Pearl Fact!
	An average Pearl Farm contains around One Million oysters. Of these one million, nearly 400,000 do not survive, create a pearl, or are too weak or susceptible to disease. This automatically leaves the Pearl Farmer with a 40% loss! Because pearl harvests are affected by growing conditions, the cost of cultured pearls, those used in creating pearl wedding jewelry, can vary from harvest to harvest. 10,000 pearls need to be culled in order to put together one complete necklace strand. The first cultured freshwater pearls originated in Japan in the 1930's. Lake Biwa is the location of the first freshwater mussel experimentation. These Biwa pearls were formed in never before seen colors and were instantly appealing.
	To convince Rome that Egypt possessed a heritage of wealth, Cleopatra wagered Marc Antony that she could give the most expensive dinner in history. He watched as the queen crushed one large pearl from a pair of earrings and dissolved it in her wine glass and then drank it. Astonished, Antony admitted she had won. That pearl in today's market is estimated at $9,375,000! The Spanish used to force slaves to dive for pearls along the Atlantic and PacificCoasts of Central America. French explorers found Native Americans wearing pearls. Iowa used to be the center of trade for mother of pearl buttons until World War II when newly invented plastic took over from the quality pearl buttons. Because of the popularity of pearls from 1524-1658 it was known as the pearl age in Europe. Marco Polo observed an Indian king who wore pearl jewelry, “worth more than a kings ransom, the quality was most incredible.” According to Xhao Xi Gou, a writer of the Sung Period, the ancient Chinese “did not value gold or jade, but valued pearls for they were far brighter”. Pearls appear in history as far back as 300 BC. In ancient China, pearls were used not only for adornment, but also as currency. They served to enhance their owner's image, imparting an air of authority and grace. In Rome, pearls were assigned such tremendous value that entire military campaigns could be financed on the sale of a single pearl. The Romans ranked pearls as their most precious commodity. The Romans sent so much gold to India in exchange for pearls that a serious trade imbalance developed and the Roman economy weakened significantly. It was only a matter of time before Rome's pearl decadence contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire.