{"id":16899,"date":"2022-09-06T18:34:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T13:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/?p=16899"},"modified":"2022-09-06T18:35:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T13:05:48","slug":"rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/","title":{"rendered":"RFID Device Embedded in South Sea Bead Cultured Pearl Necklaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New technologies are increasingly being applied to cultured pearls, and it is exciting to witness developments in pearl traceability. GIA\u2019s Bangkok laboratory recently received two South Sea bead cultured pearl necklaces, each consisting of 29 pearls ranging from 14.80 to 15.90 mm in diameter (strand A, figure 1A) and 14.40 \u00d7 14.20 mm to 16.20 mm in diameter (strand B, figure 2A). General observation under a binocular microscope revealed clear aragonite platelets characteristic of nacreous pearls, with no indications of treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 2. A: Necklace of South Sea bead cultured pearls, 14.40 \u00d7 14.20 mm to 16.20 mm in diameter. Photo by Nuttapol Kitdee. B\u2013D: RTX analysis revealed five bead cultured pearls containing an off-center RFID device within the shell bead nucleus.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Real-time microradiography (RTX) revealed obvious demarcation features separating the shell bead nucleus from the overlying nacre layers. The nacre thickness range was consistent with bead cultured pearls produced by the\u00a0Pinctada maxima<\/em>\u00a0mollusk (N. Sturman et al., \u201cBead cultured and non-bead cultured pearls from Lombok, Indonesia<\/a>,\u201d Fall 2016\u00a0G&G<\/em>, pp. 288\u2013297). However, the most striking feature was the presence of some electronic components within a few of the pearls. They were visible as opaque white squares with a stepped pattern in keeping with previously examined samples containing radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices (H.A. H\u00e4nni and L.E. Cartier, \u201cTracing cultured pearls from farm to consumer: A review of potential methods and solutions,\u201d\u00a0Journal of Gemmology<\/em>, Vol. 33, No. 7-8, 2013, pp. 239\u2013246;\u00a0Spring 2020 Lab Notes, pp. 134\u2013136<\/a>). Interestingly, only a single pearl in strand A (figure 1, B\u2013D) and five pearls in strand B (figure 2, B\u2013D) contained an RFID device. The device is usually positioned off the center of the bead to avoid being drilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 3. A: Necklace of South Sea bead cultured pearls, 10.04\u201312.21 mm in diameter. Photo by Tony Leung. B: RTX analysis of one of the pearls in the necklace revealed an RFID device. C: The internal structure was compared with two known bead cultured pearls containing RFID devices from GIA Hong Kong\u2019s reference collection, and they proved to be identical. D: RTX clearly showed the outline of the square RFID device, as well as the sawn plane and small recess where the RFID device had been placed.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

GIA\u2019s Hong Kong lab has also begun seeing similar features in recent submissions (figure 3, A\u2013B). The team compared the RTX data with some known bead cultured pearls containing an RFID device (figure 3, C\u2013D) and confirmed that they were identical. The previous studies mentioned earlier describing RFID devices in bead cultured pearls have shown that these nuclei are produced by a patented pearl technology invented by Fukui Shell Nucleus Factory, which also supplies laminated beads to certain pearl farms. This explains the link between the laminating technique and its application in the production of RFID shell beads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of RFID shell beads is known to assist in the storage of certain data such as a pearl farm\u2019s location, mollusk data, and harvest date. However, a specific RFID reader is required to retrieve the data, so we were unable to obtain the information stored within these particular devices. Since the RFID devices do not influence their external appearance, the pearls containing a shell bead nucleus with such components are still identified as bead cultured pearls. Because the RFID device could increase the weight and have a misleading effect if undetected, a special comment is routinely included on GIA pearl identification reports as a means of disclosure. While pearl tracing technology has not been extensively adopted by the cultured pearl industry, the increasing number of electronic devices in shell bead nuclei submitted to the laboratory is noteworthy. GIA will continue to monitor and provide updates to the pearl trade and consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0is republished\u00a0with permission from\u00a0the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New technologies are increasingly being applied to cultured pearls, and it is exciting to witness developments in pearl traceability. GIA\u2019s Bangkok laboratory recently received two South Sea bead cultured pearl necklaces, each consisting of 29 pearls ranging from 14.80 to 15.90 mm in diameter (strand A, figure 1A) and 14.40 \u00d7 14.20 mm to 16.20…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,100],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-16899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coloured-gemstones","category-in-focus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRFID Device Embedded in South Sea Bead Cultured Pearl Necklaces - Solitaire magazine is a International jewellery magazine - India\u2019s leading B2B gem and jewellery magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RFID Device Embedded in South Sea Bead Cultured Pearl Necklaces - Solitaire magazine is a International jewellery magazine - India\u2019s leading B2B gem and jewellery magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New technologies are increasingly being applied to cultured pearls, and it is exciting to witness developments in pearl traceability. GIA\u2019s Bangkok laboratory recently received two South Sea bead cultured pearl necklaces, each consisting of 29 pearls ranging from 14.80 to 15.90 mm in diameter (strand A, figure 1A) and 14.40 \u00d7 14.20 mm to 16.20…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Solitaire magazine is a International jewellery magazine - India\u2019s leading B2B gem and jewellery magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-06T13:04:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-06T13:05:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SU22-LN-Fig20ABCD-275911-417px-banner-img.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/\",\"name\":\"Solitaire magazine is a International jewellery magazine - India\\u2019s leading B2B gem and jewellery magazine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SU22-LN-Fig20ABCD-275911-417px-banner-img.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/\",\"name\":\"RFID Device Embedded in South Sea Bead Cultured Pearl Necklaces - Solitaire magazine is a International jewellery magazine - India\\u2019s leading B2B gem and jewellery magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-06T13:04:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-06T13:05:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/#\/schema\/person\/b614a6d604f6c36c387b4c876bb33d79\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/rfid-device-embedded-in-south-sea-bead-cultured-pearl-necklaces\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":[\"Person\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/#\/schema\/person\/b614a6d604f6c36c387b4c876bb33d79\",\"name\":\"GJEPC\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6c5b479a8ec14da0f88385e2b6cd51ccb37ac80c31409ecaebe5524700952a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GJEPC\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16903,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16899\/revisions\/16903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16899"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjepc.org\/solitaire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=16899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}