Hello Barbera, Guido Poppe has been very kind to produce and maintain a FREE listing of most common and rare sea shells .
heres the  IRL    http://www.conchology.uunethost.be/   the site is easy to navigate, pick the family , you'll see a listing,
pick the first and click , if the images matches what you saw then bingo, not the right one , click back , try next,,, i
think you have africanus and i have one at 5 3/4 in ,,,tequila sunrise colored , i have the westralis and it's ugly colored ,
sort of clear tan and not anything like africanus . check out the site , you decide and offer the lady half of what she wants
anyway , this will be one of the rare times that the collector burns the dealer . good luck , mark bethke (ferreter)








-Original Message-----
From: Barbara Jouvernaux <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: Slit shell


|I have come across a slit shell for sale which has no ID or location data.
|It may have come from an old collection and has turned up amongst a large
|selection of  low grade shells for the ornament and craft market. The seller
|doesn't seem to know much about shells either, as she is not a collector and
|sells mainly to people wanting a few pretty shells for the mantlepiece.
|Although she suspects it may be quite valuable, she does not know what price
|to ask, so is investigating before she will quote me a price.
|This looks like a possible golden opportunity if she comes back to me with a
|really good price. Being a beginner collector, and not very knowledgable yet
|myself, I have no idea what the true value of such a shell would be. I have
|only briefly examined the shell at her shop, and I did not have any
|reference books with me.
|I came home and looked at a few books and it looks like it could be a
|perotrochus africana or perotrochus westralis. It is about 5 inches, pale
|orange and in reasonable condition, I would guestimate  F to F+.
|I have read that a slit shell can be faked. I would love to have any advice
|you can offer regarding clues to identify the shell and how one can tell
|whether it is a fake or not. Is there a site on the internet where I could
|see some good pictures? Also an estimation of the value of the shell with no
|data at all.
|Many thanks for your input.
|