Author: Sam Baker for Mailonline
Published: March 24, 2021 11:38 ET | Updated: March 24, 2021 11:38 ET
After a penniless Thai woman finds an orange melon pearl worth tens of thousands of pounds in her seafood, her destiny may change forever.
On January 30, Kodchakorn Tantiwiwatkul bought conch for dinner for 70 baht (£1.65) from a local market in Satun, Thailand.
When she cut the snails into small pieces, she found a round orange object inside one of the snail shells-she initially thought it was a stone.
Kodchakorn Tantiwiwatkul found a rare melon pearl in a snail shell purchased for 70 baht (£1.65) at a local dinner market in Satun, Thailand on January 30
She was surprised to find that this thing was a six-gram melon with a diameter of 1.5 cm, depending on the quality.
Fearing that the peddler who sold her snails would ask for pearls, Kodchakorn and her family kept secret.
However, now, three months later, Kodchakorn revealed that she plans to sell the pearl to raise the funds needed to pay for the mother's medical expenses.
She said: "I showed it to my mother and she said it was a Melo pearl, very valuable. We also watched the news on TV and a fisherman sold his wealth.
Fearing that the peddler who sold her snails would ask for the pearl, Kodchakorn and her family kept the pearl secret at first
Kodchakorn revealed that she plans to sell the pearl (pictured) to raise funds to pay for her mother's medical expenses
Kodchakorn's father Niwat Tantiwiwatkul said that they are now "desperate" about money after he had an accident and his wife needed cancer treatment. Medical expenses may exceed one million baht (23,500 pounds).
He said: "We can't wait any longer. Now, we are desperate. My wife was diagnosed with cancer when I was in a car accident. This Melo pearl is our only hope to help them get better treatment.
Kodchakorn and her family published their appeal for help on March 18th, hoping to find potential buyers who can provide suitable prices.
Kodchakorn added: "I have seen stories of other people who discovered Melo pearls and were able to sell them. I hope we can do the same thing because money will help a lot.
Kodchakorn found a melon pearl 1.5 cm in diameter and 6 grams in weight in this conch shell
Melo pearls range in color from orange to tan to brown-orange is the most expensive hue.
They are usually found in the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea near the coast of Myanmar, and are produced by the predatory conch called Volutidae.
Because he was lucky to find a rare melon pearl, Kodchakorn was not the first lucky person to change his fate.
Last month, the 40-year-old truck driver Monthian Jansuk found a similar pearl worth 70,000 pounds in his 1 pound sea snail snack.
Fresh orange Melo pearls have the highest price
Melo pearls are natural gemstones produced under the shell of a large conch called Melo Melo.
When the irritant enters under the snail shell, it will form a gemstone, causing the snail to produce secretions to alleviate its discomfort.
A few years later, the secretion layer formed a melon pearl.
The color of the pearl varies from brown to yellow or orange, depending on the color of the snail shell in which the gem grows.
Orange Melo pearls only appear in one of thousands of shells, which means that these gems have the highest price.
Melo pearls cannot be cultured like other pearls because this gem has not been successfully cultured and cannot grow in exotic mussels or clams.
This means that Melo pearls can only be discovered when it occurs naturally.
These gems are found in the shallow waters of the South China Sea, Vietnam, Thailand, and the coasts of Myanmar.
Officially, this gem is indeed an extremely rare melon pearl, weighing 65.57 carats (13.11 grams).
Experts say that this gem is worth as much as people are willing to pay-but the market price can be as high as thousands of dollars per carat, depending on the quality. Similar pearls are priced at US$1,700 (£1,226) per carat.
But the humble truck driver, whose name has never exceeded a few hundred dollars, said that he was happy to sell the pearl for $33,350 (£24,047), only one-third of the estimated price.
After the worker and his 44-year-old wife Wasana boiled the snails and ate them with their son, they found an orange stone and the son bit a hard object.
On January 27, 37-year-old poor fisherman Hatchai Niyomdecha and his family found another Melo pearl worth £250,000 while collecting shells in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
He found an abandoned buoy washed ashore with many shells, including three snail shells. His 35-year-old brother Worachat Niyomdecha took these shells home.
They gave the snail shell to his 60-year-old father, Bangmad Niyomdecha, and when he found the pearl, he was cleaning it up-the pearl was about 10 pence in size.
Hatchai called his 35-year-old wife Worachat Niyomdecha and his two sons to inspect this beautiful 7.68 grams gem with him and decided to check its value the next day.
They asked their neighbors about the pearl, and the neighbors swarmed when they found that they had found an extremely expensive pearl.
A few days later, a wealthy businessman from another province heard about the pearl and offered to buy it for 1 million baht (£25,000), but the family refused.
Another persistent luxury collector raised his bid to 5 million baht (£122,000), but the family still refused, thinking they could get a higher price.
The third potential buyer, this time from China, negotiated with his family to buy the pearl for 10 million baht (expected price), but he wanted to see with his own eyes whether it was the real Melo.
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