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The three most common South Sea pearl shapes are round, semi-round, and button.
Round – these pearls are perfectly round, and when they're measured with a caliper, the variation in the circumference is less than 2%.
Semi-Round – a pearl that appears to be round to the eye, but when measured with a caliper, the variation in the circumference is 2% or more.
Button – this type of pearl has a variation in circumference of about 20%. Within this style, there are also“tall buttons" which are button pearls that appear round.
South Sea pearls are only grown in tropical and semi-tropical regions called the South Seas, usually in the areas around the coast of Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are cultured pearls available in colors of golden.
When it comes to South Sea pearls, the larger they are, the more valuable they are to sell. Thus South Sea Pearl cultivators hope for frequent harvests of very large pearls in perfectly round shapes. However, the formation of South Sea pearls, like other kinds of pearls, is quite unpredictable, and even the slightest environmental change can produce changes in shape, or blemishes, or even no pearl at all.
This is the reason that a perfectly spherical South Sea pearls are considered to be the ideal of the gem.
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