Rare find came from Virginia clam shack. — -- A Virginia Beach woman who picked up a couple bags of clams from a seafood shack was shocked when she discovered a rare, purple pearl inside one ...

"In February, an 8.8-millimeter white pearl was found in a clam shucked at the Lobster House in Cape May, N.J. Its estimated value is in the thousands of dollars.

While pearls are typically formed inside the shells of living oysters, they can also form inside other shellfish like clams and mussels. Depending on its color, size and where the pearl was formed ...

Clams, too, will form these shimmering clumps to trap irritants that enter their shells. In fact, a fisherman once found a 34-kilogram pearl inside a giant clam.

Most clam pearls have a purplish tint, as does the pearl Henderson found, Clark said. "That's all 100 percent natural pearl — that's Mother Nature," he said.

Note there are eight holes of varying sizes in the shell picked at random from the pile below. (The Gazette) Clam shell gatherers were the front line in the booming pearl button business in 1897.