Gold the Oyster Made: A 12–14.9 mm Natural Color Aurora Chakin South Sea Strand

Rare Collectibles · July 2024

Gold is one of the most imitated colors in the pearl trade. This strand is the real thing: 35 round South Sea pearls from 12 to 14.9 mm, given Pearl Science Laboratory’s (PSL) Aurora Chakin name, with a laboratory finding of no trace of coloring. The gold came from the oyster.

Gold the oyster made

Golden South Sea pearls grow in the gold-lipped Pinctada maxima, the large South Sea pearl oyster. The color comes from the nacre the oyster lays down, and across most of a harvest it is pale: champagne, cream, a soft yellow. Deep, even gold is the smaller share, and it is the shade the market wants most.

That demand is why gold is so often helped along. Pearls can be dyed or color-enhanced, and to the eye a treated pearl can pass for a natural one. The difference may only show years later, when treated color fades or shifts.

PSL tests for it. Before it issues a report, Pearl Science Laboratory measures how the pearls reflect light across the spectrum. Dyes and color treatments leave a signature in that reading. On this strand’s report the remark is plain: no trace of coloring.

Then it grades everything else. Natural color alone does not earn the Aurora Chakin name. The strand also had to pass on brightness, interference color, nacre thickness, surface and shape, and the report places it within the range PSL defines as its highest quality.

• 35Round pearls, graduated from 12.0 to 14.9 mm.
• 2.8 mmNacre over the bead, measured by PSL with soft X-ray.
• 0Traces of coloring found in PSL’s spectral testing.

茶金, chakin: literally “tea gold.” PSL’s name for golden South Sea pearls at the top of its grading.

Why tea gold is the gold to have

茶 means tea in Japanese, and it is also the word for a warm brown. 茶金, chakin, is gold with that warmth in it. PSL’s own glossary calls chakin “the pinnacle of gold-type pearls” and describes the color as closer to orange than yellow: the amber of brewed tea held up to the light, not the lemon tone of a pale golden pearl.

It is the rarest gold the oyster makes. Golden pearls come only from the gold-lipped Pinctada maxima, whose range runs from the southern Philippines to the waters around Borneo. One Japanese golden-pearl farm estimates that gold of any shade is only about 2 to 3 percent of South Sea pearl production, and most of that is champagne or light yellow. A deep, orange-leaning gold, matched across a full strand, is a small part of a small share.

It is the color treatment tries to copy. Pale cream South Sea pearls can be chemically treated to look gold, and Japanese pearl specialists warn that heavily colored pearls tend to change color sooner. A deep gold that tests as natural is the standard those treatments imitate, which is why the lab finding on this report matters as much as the color itself.

It holds its own beside metal. A pale golden pearl can look washed out next to 18k yellow gold. At chakin depth the pearl reads as gold in its own right, with vivid overtone playing over the deep body color.

The rarest shade, natural in origin, and top-graded on every other measure: that combination is what PSL reserves the Chakin name for.

Reading the report

The report is PSL’s SS type, the format for its Highest Quality series, written in Japanese as PSL reports usually are. Here is what it says, in plain terms.

On the report	Reads	What it means
Special appellation	オーロラ 茶金	Aurora Chakin, PSL’s Highest Quality name for golden South Sea pearls
Kind of pearl	白蝶真珠	South Sea cultured pearl, from the Pinctada maxima oyster
Item	連	A strand
Size	約12.0–14.9mm	Approx. 12.0 to 14.9 mm across the strand
Brightness	最強 (very strong)	The top step on PSL’s luster scale
Interference colour	あざやかな干渉色の発現を確認	Vivid interference color confirmed
Thickness of pearl layers	2.8 mm	The nacre over the bead
Body colour	ゴールド系	Gold
Imperfection & surface	微 (very slightly)	PSL’s cleanest surface rating
Shape	ラウンド系	Round
Remarks	着色の痕跡を認めません	Spectral reflectance and other tests found no trace of coloring
Marks	Pearl Mark, Best Quality	Passed PSL’s defect inspection, and all five quality components meet PSL’s top standard

The remarks also confirm the strand’s Aurora Effect: interference color strong enough to meet PSL’s standard, photographed on the lower half of the pearls and printed on the report. The pattern is unique to these pearls, so it works like a fingerprint that ties this strand to this report.

Why we call it a collectible

A golden South Sea strand on its own is not rare. One that is round, matched across 35 pearls from 12 to 14.9 mm, with very strong luster and PSL’s cleanest surface rating, is. Add a laboratory finding that the gold is natural, and the field becomes very small.

That is why it belongs in Rare Collectibles: natural, documented, and worth writing down while it passes through our hands.

Frequently asked questions

Also in Rare Collectibles: Aurora Venus® South Sea, 17–18.7 mm · The Tennyo That Shouldn’t Exist · Hanadama at 11–12 mm.
Learn more: South Sea pearls: history, colors & how they’re grown · Pearl Education