There were a total of 108 black pearls in the box that Qin Shiou put in his backpack, all of them were full, smooth and round, and he handed the pearl box to Liv, preparing to leave with Vincent to taste his delicious coffee.

Vincent said, "I'll take you to the Jewelry Hall of Fame first, now we have a lot of time, and our experts need to grade your black pearls, and it will take a little time." ”

Qin Shiou asked, "If that's the case, can I follow along?" I don't know how to grade black pearls yet. ”

He didn't know the specific criteria, and had only been graded by size, roundness, and brightness. Now that he has the opportunity to learn, he thinks it's not bad to study, and he has to learn until he is old.

Listening to his request, Vincent shrugged and said, "Of course you can, why not?" ”

So the two of them went out into court and entered a large room marked with a sign that said 'No Entry Without Permission', where some people were already waiting, and in the center was a machine like a hospital X-ray fluoroscopy, but it was larger and had a lot of optical lenses on it.

In addition, similar to the laboratory, there were various reagents and glass tubes, triangular cups, and beakers on the table in the room, and Qin Shiou only recognized one silver reagent as silver nitrate, and he was not familiar with anything else.

Liv carefully placed the black pearls on the table, and immediately a girl wearing gloves walked up and carefully placed each black pearl into a clear glass stand with many grooves.

It's not easy to do it, Qin Shiou watched from the side, and felt that it might not be possible to let him do this job. This glass stand is particularly transparent, if not after putting black pearls. The pearl was reflected in the glass, and he couldn't see any grooves.

Vincent introduced to Qin Shiou: "This is a panoramic light rack. It is used to distinguish whether the black pearl is a natural black pearl, a cultured pearl or an imitation pearl, and now there are three main black pearls in the world. ”

Qin Shiou nodded in understanding. Natural black pearls are wild black pearls, which are produced by wild black lipped oysters, mostly in the atolled waters of Tahiti and French Polynesia.

The most abundant black pearls on the market today are brown to black seedless cultured pearls, which are being developed in China, Japan, and Australia, and are valued less than natural black pearls. However, because of the increasing variety of cultured seedless pearls, the value is acceptable.

The cheapest is imitation pearls made from black shells, which are produced in two ways, the first is made by coating the core of the ball with a blackened essence-de-orient film. The second is made of black shells that are beaded and have a pearlescent luster after being polished.

Vincent said, "Look, the first step of discernment begins. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the lights in the closed room suddenly went out, and then the glass stand itself emitted a soft white light.

The light emitted by the glass frame envelops the black pearl in all directions, and it is no wonder that it is called the 'panoramic light frame'. At this time, the black pearl itself exudes another color in addition to black, a rich bright purple, the white light is in the outermost layer, and the inside is a black halo wrapped in bright purple, and the glass frame is now completely invisible. It seems that there are more than a hundred round black pearls that exude black, purple and white light floating in the air, and the visual impact is super strong.

Vincent pointed to the black pearls and said: "Now the main thing is to determine whether these black pearls are imitations or not, it depends on the luster of the coated pearls, and the pearlescent brilliance of imitation pearls comes from under a thin layer of polymer." Natural pearls, on the other hand, have not been treated, so the pearlescent shine comes from the surface of the pearl. You look at the abnormal reflection of the color on the top side of the pearl because of astigmatism. Imitation pearls also have purple but loose tops, while they have green or pink tones on the sides. ”

The glass shelves are slowly turning and churning. Let the black pearl be displayed in front of everyone in an all-round way. After about five minutes of turning, numbers suddenly appeared under the black pearl. This is a numbering treatment for black pearls.

When the numbers appeared, the lights came back on, and the light of the glass shelves dimmed and returned to their previous appearance.

A middle-aged man with glasses as fine as a clock-repairing clock nodded to Vincent, signed a piece of paper, and said, "No problem, Mr. President, there are no imitation pearls in here." ”

Vincent also nodded, motioning for them to continue the identification, and he said to Qin Shiou: "Actually, this process is just for the sake of safety, high-quality natural black pearls and imitation pearls can be distinguished with the naked eye. Regardless of the technique used, imitation pearls will not have the smoothness that natural pearls have been carved over time. To the touch, the natural pearl also has a slight viscosity, as if it wants to bind to you. ”

Qin Shiou felt this, when he first harvested the black pearls, he felt that they were a little slimy in his hands, he rubbed them with deer skin a few times, and at that time he thought it was because of the sweaty palms of his hands.

The possibility of imitation pearls is removed, and the next part is the hardest part, which is to tell whether the pearl is wild or farmed.

The wild black pearls and cultured black pearls here are not artificially cultured, Qin Shiou here is also a black pearl produced by artificially cultivated black lipped oysters, but this is called wild black pearls, cultured black pearls refer to some treatment after the pearl is produced, so that it becomes more beautiful and has a better texture.

Such black pearls are also real pearls, different from imitation pearls, but because their color and luster are artificially processed after all, not naturally grown, so the color will change over time and the light will recede, so the natural value is low.

Now imitation pearls and natural black pearls, are relatively rare, the latter is less produced, the former is easy to distinguish, there may be a lot of fools in the world, and there are still relatively few fools who may reach the level of high-end jewelry consumption.

"The most of our industry now is cultured pearls, which are in fact fakes!" Vincent said, "This kind of pearl can also be described on the certificate that it is a real pearl, and it is indeed cultivated from seawater and shellfish, but they will cover up the fact that these beads have been processed and dyed, just like some small shops selling jadeite will not tell the customer whether the jadeite is an optimized B or C product, and the customer will be fooled in the end." ”

Qin Shiou nodded, cultured black pearls are legal in the United States and Canada because of their ornamentality and demand. However, in territories where natural black pearls are produced, such as Tahiti and French Polynesia, such methods of black pearl production are illegal. (To be continued.) )