Woman Accidentally Bites Into Rare $600 Pearl At Italian Restaurant

Not all treasure is silver and gold... Sometimes it's round, purple, and almost breaks your tooth. A woman in the Seattle area was shocked as she bit into her entrée at Montalcino Ristorante Italiano in Issaquah, Washington, and discovered a small, purple pearl.

After doing some research and having the tiny gem appraised, Lindsay Hasz found out that it was a rare Quahog pearl of gemstone quality, worth about $600. That certainly paid for her fruitti di mare multiple times over!

"He thought it looked so round and perfect that someone was playing a joke on me," Hasz told local news station KOMO News, referring to the geologist who appraised the pearl. "He said, 'you have a Quahog pearl, it's real.'"

The Quahog, a common species of claim found on the East Coast, is known to seldom produce pearls — and even rarer still are the pearls so perfectly round and symmetrical.

After calling up Montalcino Ristorante, the owners were happy to hear of Hasz's find. Hasz says she will likely make the pearl into a necklace.