Coral beads cracked?

[yssie]

I recently purchased a vintage coral bead necklace. A lot of the beads (70ish%) are cracked.


Is this normal? I know coral can crack easily, are such cracks in such quantity in a used piece par for the course (as in, is this an acceptable condition, normal, and to be expected)?

 

[iLander]

I don''t know why they would be cracked. I have a few (maybe 10) coral beads that fell off a necklace over 70 years ago, they''re all intact. Are you sure they aren''t just cut too close to the edge of the coral? Is it possibly the coral texture you''re seeing?

High quality red coral is very smooth and without flaws, the color is the same throughout (try looking down inside the string hole with a magnifier) and it has a gentle sheen (but not a "shine"). They are perfectly round. The next grade of red coral is toned, kind of striped, with red/orangy/white tones. Kind of swirly toned and not perfectly round. After that you have the polished branches of coral and some types of beads. I don''t think there should be any cracks. . .

Do you have a picture?

 

[yssie]

Thanks iLander - I went ahead and returned them though. "Normal" crazing or not, it was just too much for me! I figure if I'm asking here, it's probably not a keeper

 

[T L]

Coral is one gem that I do not know much about except that it is an organic gem found in water. I wonder if it does dry out and crack, much like opals or pearls can when they are kept in very dry places for a long period of time.