www.cowries.info

[gil]

Cypraea pantherina from the south red-sea ( Eritrea) comes in 3 spescial colors forms- black, red and whith. but are thay real, someonw tell me that the whith form are cooked shells...

[benicypraea]

Hello dear Gil:

Very nice shells. Cypraea pantherina is one of the most beatiful cowries in the world, at least for me. That cowry is very variable in colour, from white to almost black, personally I have got several nice ones, most of them from old collections (made in the 1970´s) but recently I adquired a fresh one from Dhalak Archipelago.
For me, the most desirable colour for these shells is honey-tan. White is nice, too.
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[gil]

I think that the White is very rare and the most whith forms are fake cook shells- you see that the black spotts are brown and the shell not have normal color inside.

[XEP-BAM]

One of my favorites, great colouration

[XEP-BAM]

another interesting colour (from a Russian collection)

[PVDB]

Pale pantherina = faked, heated?
For once I disagree.Mostly NOT faked, or not intentionally faked.But well careless"bad treatment". Commercial boiling to "clean" shell lots is always possible.

Why take the effort to fake a common shell that You will afterwards sell for the same price.Not very logic nor interesting.

Pantherina used to be a (red sea, locally) very abundant shell.
I have seen hundreds (maybe a litlle less) of big bags full of them 30 to 40 years ago ( independently in Italy and in Spain!!- were they do not live ) in very commercial tourist shops between other "exotic" prullaria.
These shells were seldom of good quatilty but You could make a phantastic colour series for really no cost.
Actually pantherina was the first species that "started" my big number comparative series.

BBG from PVDB.

[gil]

From my coll.




Sinai


Freak


WOW:)
(C) All right reserve to me !!!

[benicypraea]

Hello all:

I agree with PVDB. Cypraea pantherina is still locally common or abundant in many places of the Red Sea, at least according to my recent knowledge about this area speaking with people collecting there and maybe in the south Red Sea is more abundant that in the Northern Part (Sinai) too arrased by tourism masses. I don´t know 100% however.
Also I think that "baking" a real pantherina is a very stupid work. Pantherina is not an expensive cowry and except for exceptional colourations (not necessary very dark or very pale) or pattern, really you can find many cheap shells in the most of dealers pages.
I can imagine some people baking or cooking certain Zoila species to make fake golden of the very rare real golden variations with the bad idea of sell these like real ones and make money with the good spirit of most of us, but sincerely I cannot imagine people baking just a pantherina to sell that shell at very expensive price. I´m sure that most of collectors will not buy this kind of shell because is frankly suspicious...
Regards,
Beni

p.d. Never I have seen a pantherina in a local shop here in Spain (not from dealers or another collectors)... or maybe yes?
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[PVDB]

for Beni

around 1962 in Spain Blanes near the lonja de pescadores was:
1. a fisherman shop, diver "center": were a purchased
-lots of large capulus hungaricus white or pink inside, full periostracum outside together with their substrate/pinna
= 100+cm pinna nobilis/symbiotic litlle white crabs,lobsters(?) and flukes(?) included
- glossus humanus "isocardia cor" with same symbiotic content
- strange large mediterrannean cushion stars and echinodermata

some 50 to 100m more to the centre were coastal tourist shops with the mentioned pantherina - 5peseta each (+/- 8eurocent now or 10$cent)

around 1977 in Italy at Tor San Lorenzo- "vicinity of Rome" in different coastal tourist shops

Kind regards and BBG from PVDB.

[benicypraea]

Dear PVDB:

Thanks for aditional and interesting info about seashells found in Spain in shops. I know already that really I was born years later so in that time I was not in proyect
I have the feeling that you know very well many places of my country. It sounds great!.
This year I was snorkelling in the Mediterranean sea here in Spain looking for Haliotis and other common seashells amongst Posidonias and I was happy to find and see myself a live large Pinna nobilis. I did not collect this shell alive because they are endangered there in shallow water, however I found a fresh dead one that it was collected then but it was broken incidentally in several fragments...
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[gil]

Yes, I know that cypraea pantherina is not expensive shell. you can buy it in 25 cent in Eritrea but it cost more "white form" and for this people it mony!. and thay dont have another thing to do... (You think like European with food in your stomach).
At sinai Cyprae pantherina are not rare, in good snorkeling you can find 10 piece. BUT!!!, now it is very dangerous area with terror and "nature reseve" that believe me you dont want to be at Egyptian jail.
What do you think abut my coll. Do you what more pic.??? this is O.K that it here and not in "my stars"?

[benicypraea]

Dear Gil:

Of course, I understand perfectly that unfortunately, in many countries of Africa, Asia and south and central America most important for people is food and health, or life in general, and I think that always we´re thinking our things in our own perspective, this is mean, because we´re living in Europe or North America (for american people, of course) or even in Australia (Australian friends and collectors) we have a better life than many people from these countries...
Yes, certainly is not hard to get a Cypraea pantherina alive there in Red Sea. If you know about the severe laws there in Egypt, just I can say that maybe you´re right, because never I have been there collecting seashells. In fact, I believe you and probably this is not isolate...
If I know that maybe I can be in an egyptian jail or any other else, I will never collect seashells there, of course, because for me this is not a business, just a hobby and I am not interested in put my life at risk.
Concerning your pantherina, they are lovely and maybe you can put them in a selection to make pictures and send later to the "Stars" section of this forum.
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[felix]

The first shell-trade with pantherinas that we know of was done between what today is Germany and the Yemen in the early middle ages (500 A.D.). People here used them as a gift in graves of important women. The shells were collected and processed for export on the spot, by drilling a hole and attaching a metal ring at the anterior of the cowries, so their European customers could put a rope or leather-band through them. The buyers were rich members of the Merowingan people, who obviously had an eye for their beauty and an understanding for the glamour of these cowries, which at that time had a value comparable to that of a sportscar.

Remember: all that was more than 1000 years before America was discovered...




photo © Dr. K. Banghardt, which many thanks

[gil]

Nice story. part of my freak coll.





without tooths


black patch


m... This is one of my favorite cypraea

[benicypraea]

Hello all:

Very nice ancient pantherina, still with traces of color, also illustrated in the New Worldwide Cowries (Checklist) if I´m not wrong. That story is so nice and real like the trade with monetas in the huge Indopacific region, from Polynesia to Zanzíbar... To everyone interested in the story of cowries as a trade subject in the past centuries and today, I recomended the following work, "The timeless Cowrie" Its Signifcance the world Over by Anita Von Khaler Gumpert. But, sorry, don´t wait to find here many pictures of cowries alive!
Regards,
Beni

p.d. Very pretty freak pantherina! Also is a favourite for me. Congratulations...
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.