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Pink Coral
Not often seen on the market a few decades ago,
pink cc is now widely available; large quantities of it come
from Orient.
Appearance The Mediterranean type (a special
varof the more common red coral) is very compact and, - red
coral, takes a good polish, with barely visible orgz structures
and a fairly uniform, soft pink to white color. ' oriental
variety often has more clearly visible orga structures, sometimes
emphasized by the presence c, white center or concentric color
zoning. It is often v• pale, with shaded areas or patches
of pink or orange piOn other occasions it has concentric zones
of color frvery bright pink to light pink or whitish; but
it may beautiful uniform pink, very similar to Mediterranean
cc, Sometimes, the rings of the trunk are genuine discontir
ties or cracks and there may be other extensive radia' variously
oriented cracks, making the whole struct. more brittle and
therefore less valuable.
Costliest of all rthe most compact, easily polished
varieties, without cra: - or cavities, of a perfectly uniform
soft pink color, with any trace of orange. When pink coral
has all these char teristics, combined with an antique pink
color, and with - merest hint of violet, it is known as pelle
d'angelc "angel's skin." It is meaningless to describe
patchily c ored coral as pelle d'angelo type" or part
pelle d gelo," as the very existence of patches or discontinuit
rules out such a definition. The interior varieties often
hr poor polish, cracks, and, as a rule, some artificial cc
Objects manufactured from pink coral include polish, spherical
necklace beads, roughly carved but rarely ceted pieces, necklaces,
pendants, cabochons, and otr items of jewelry, and figurines.
Distinctive features As with red coral, the
most imptant distinctive features are the typical organic
structur (clearly visible in evenly colored corals, but much
less ::: parent in the others) and reaction to hydrochloric
ac Minute examination is necessary to distinguish it from
n pink shell used for the same purpose. The structure of ~latter
is different, consisting of almost flat or slightly curc parallel
layers, never concentric rings; but the reactior hydrochloric
acid is identical. With pink coral, it is very ~ portant to
establish whether the color is natural or wheth as often happens
nowadays, the color of almost white cc, has been heightened
by the use of dyes.
Traces of dye may be visible in small, superficial cavltir
or one may be able to see, by splitting one bead of a neclace,
that the outer surface and that of a preexisting cra-are more
deeply colored than the newly fractured or - These are the
main methods of detecting the presence artificial colorants.
Occurrence Very limited quantities of pink
coral cor from the Mediterranean; considerable quantities,
althou : mainly of inferior quality, come from the Far East,
es~cially Japan. The pelle d'angelo variety, which is not
co• mon, may come from the Mediterranean, the Gulf of
Chi, (in China), or from Japan. Value Good quality pink coral
of a uniform and attrac* color is worth at least as much as
red coral. Most of pink coral on the market is, however, of
inferior quality r, has been artificially colored. It is therefore
much less vable and is worth perhaps a quarter of the red
van, White coral also has quite a low value, given its poor
or, mental qualities.
Simulants As already mentioned, pink coral
can be ~ tated by similarly colored shells, which, apart from
havir different structure, have a slightly higher density
of ab2.85 g/cm3 (compared with 2.63-2.70 g/cm3 for ~ - coral).
But the main problem with this type of coral is common practice
of using dyes to improve coral tha, mainly white, contains
a few streaks of pale color, or is -: tinctly patchy. In some
cases it is difficult and costly to tect this type of fraud.
Perhaps for this reason, pink cc has fallen sadly into disrepute,
except for the better vaties obtained from reliable sources.
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