Environmentally friendly sea shell collections available for purchase?

[paul monfils]

Hi Christy,

Welcome to the site.

The fact that a collection is "old" doesn't mean that the shells in the collection are not of good quality.  The shells most collectors are not interested in are those which were washed up on the beach, chipped and scratched by rolling aropund in the sand, dulled and bleached by the sun. These would not be of interest to most collectors, regardless of whether they were from an old collection, or collected just yesterday.  However, nice "specimen quality" shells that were collected fresh will retain their color and beauty for a long time if stored properly.  These would be of interest whether from an old collection, or collected more recently.

If shells came to you without accompanying locality data, there is really no way to tell exactly where the shells were collected. Serious collectors emphasize accurate locality data, as they want their collection to have scientific as well as aesthetic value. The general locality (as opposed to specific locality) however can be determined by identifying the species of shell, because different molluscs, just like different mammals or birds, live in different parts of the world - Some species in the Caribbean, some in the Mediterranean, some in the North Atlantic, etc. Some species have a very large geographic range, so the best you could do for locality might be "Indo-Pacific Region". Others have a much smaller range, such as  "southern Japan" or "southeastern United States" while a few species have a very restricted range, such as "Hawaii" or "Easter Island".  So, if you post a picture of a shell on this site, we can tell you its name (usually), and its general geographic range, but not anything more specific than that.  <span class="petit">--Last edited by Paul Monfils on 2008-07-28 18:15:49 --</span>