Hi, dear friends, Thank you so much for your suggustions, advice, discussions and investigations on "Baking Cowrie". I have already read all of replies. Most of them are very interesting, I think. Anyway, I still think it is a very difficult problem that how to judge "color variations of cowries" are natural or baking (artificial treatment) because of the following two reasons: (1) Nature is a quite great creator, almost all of our common senses can be changed by new discoveries. If we can accept a great quality Cypraea Aurantium, or Rosselli Edingeri, we can naturally accept a baking "Cypraea Caputserpentis" as a golden form of normal. On the other hand, Erosaria moneta has golden and other color forms. And Caputserpentis has also redish form (please refer to "Seashells of Philippines"). Based on these knowledgements, if there is a baked Rosselli without crack, how can we judge it is a true or not. I have seen a baking Caputserpentis without any crack and oil smell. (2) Based on the logic, it is possible that almost all species has pigment lacking variations such as Edingeri and Golden Caputserpentis, etc. Although we can find some differents from true Edingeri or Baking rosselli, for example, teeth of true Edingeri is redish but baked one is colorless. But we cannot say a colorless one is exactly a fake one since its existance is also possible. Acturally, I am a shell lover and I don't like doubt a shell is a true one or not since thinking about these problems is quite tied and unhappy. Sorry for everyone that I submitted this uninteresting topic m(--)m..... Thanks again. Jiongtao http://www.soft.ics.keio.ac.jp/~huang/ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com