A fisherman in the Philippines kept a giant pearl under his bed for ten years. But the fisherman didn’t know that the 75 pound (34 kg) pearl was valued at more than $100 million.
The fisherman found this irregularly shaped pearl off the coast of the Philippines’ Palawan Island in Puerto Princesca. He found the pearl inside a giant shell that stuck to his boat’s anchor when he took refuge on a reef during a storm almost a decade ago.
He was not aware that he made the catch of a lifetime. His family kept the pearl under the bed all these years as a good luck charm.
Aileen Cynthia Amurao, who is the Puerto Princesa city’s tourism officer and the fisherman’s relative, said that the family would rub it with their hands before going out to sea in the belief it would bring them luck.
The fisherman gave this 1 foot wide by 2.2 feet long pearl to Amurao for safekeeping after a house fire forced him to move to a new place last month.
Amurao was amazed when she checked the internet and found out that it could be the world’s biggest pearl.
Amurao said the Gemologist Institute now needs to authenticate the giant pearl. If recognized, the pearl will beat the current record holder, the Pearl of Lao Tzu, as the largest known pearl in the world. It was also found in the Philippines, back in 1934. The Pearl of Lao Tzu weighs 14 pounds (6.4 kilograms) and is worth $35 million.
