Just about 10 years ago, a Filipino fisherman made an amazing discovery in the sea off the coast of the Palawan Island, Philippines: a two-foot long (26 inches to be exact) pearl inside a giant clam. He took it home and hid it under his bed – keeping it as a good luck charm. Recently, his tiny home burned down, but the 75-pound pearl survived. Via officials in the Philippines, the pearl has been verified at 26 inches in length, 12 inches in width and weighing nearly 75 pounds. It is valued at $100 Million.
The nearly 75-pound pearl was found 10 years ago inside a clam. Approximately 2 feet long by 1 foot... [+]
The pearl, which has not yet been named, beats the current “world’s largest” pearl known to exist: the Pearl of Allah (sometimes called the Pearl of Lao Tze), which is valued at $35 million and weighs less than 15 pounds. That pearl was also found off Palawan in the Philippines in 1934. It is currently on exhibit in New York at Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum.
Pearls are the only gems in the world to be born and grow inside a living organism. Most are found inside oysters, but very scarcely are they found in clams – making this clam-found pearl even rarer. The pearl was recently shown to the public in the Philippines for the first time.
