Palawan

Mother of Pearl

Photo credit: Puerto Princesa Tourism Office

Over 10 years ago, a fisherman in Palawan, an island archipelago in the Philippines, found what’s believed to be the world’s largest pearl. The authorities only heard about the discovery a decade later—the man kept the 75lb pearl under the bed in his hut as a good luck charm, unaware that he was sitting on (or actually laying on) a precious stone worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The giant clam that yielded its treasure had got snagged in his anchor during a storm. In 2016, the pearl was displayed in the city hall of Puerto Princesa, the island chain’s capital.

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