Pearls!

The word itself immediately conjures images of wealth, classic beauty and nobility. Throughout history, pearls have always been associated with power and money, for only the rich and powerful could afford them. All through history, pearls were valued more highly than gold or diamonds.

Pearls have become synonymous with high value in our language. We still speak of "pearls of wisdom", meaning the highest form of wisdom, the wisest of the wise. Jesus Christ spoke of "casting pearls before swine", in reference to the most wasteful possible use of a most valuable resource. And the entrance to Heaven? The Pearly Gates of course.

Why were pearls so valuable? Pearls were extraordinarily rare. Unlike gold or precious gems, they are not mined from the ground, but made by a living organism, an oyster or a mussel. Pearls do not appear in a "vein" like precious metals or gemstones. They are spread out over a wide area, and deep under water. Even in areas where there are many oysters, only a few would contain a pearl, and collecting enough oysters to find pearls was a difficult and perilous task. Also, oysters are susceptible to climate change and disease. Entire beds can be wiped out in a year, thus eliminating the possibility of finding any more pearls. All problems that don't exist with precious metals or gems.

At perhaps the most famous banquet in history, Cleopatra challenged Marc Antony to a wager to demonstrate that Egypt had a wealth and history that placed it above conquest, she said she would provide the most extravagant dinner in history and challenged Marc Antony to match it. When they met, Cleopatra took a single pearl, crushed it to powder, put it into a glass of wine and drank it. Marc Antony immediately conceded defeat, and declined the offer of his meal, the matching pearl to the one Cleopatra had just consumed. Pliny wrote in his famous "Natural History" that the value of the two pearls was estimated at 60 million sesterces, equivalent to 1.87 million ounces of silver. At today