Round, near-round or semi-round??

[syd]

Is there a significant visual difference between these three types of pearls? I am looking at purchasing south sea dangle earrings and a pendant. There is a big difference in price between these, and I'm wondering whether its worth paying that much more. Does anyone have any comparison photos?

 

[PearlsOfJoy]

Semi-round and near round are getting pretty close to round but of course you can tell by looking at them that they aren't quite perfectly round. You'll see this a lot with freshwater, tahitian and south sea pearls.

Round pearls are round, they should be "8 way rollers", which means they should roll perfectly in all 8 directions.

hope that helps a bit.