In February 2025, a story began to gain popularity on the Internet about a young man from Krasnodar who allegedly discovered two shiny objects on the seashore, which turned out to be shells with pearls inside. We decided to check whether these publications are true.

The story about the amazing discovery of a lucky teenager became popular primarily among VKontakte users. Publications about her receive thousands of likes and reposts and millions of views, for example in groups “Brain fitness | Facts"(5.2 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Interesting things from the world"(5.1 million), everyday bullsht (3.6 million), "Dangerous Earth..."(1.4 million), etc. Other users also wrote about this social networks. The text in most posts is identical: “A teenager from Krasnodar discovered two shiny objects on the seashore, which turned out to be shells. Inside them lay a large black pearl, its size was 5 cm. The jewelry house, having assessed the find, offered 27 million rubles for it. It turned out that the shell is already more than a thousand years old.” Most publications are illustrated with three photographs of some round shiny objects.

“Verified” was unable to find news about the found thousand-year-old shells with pearls in any authoritative Russian media or on an information portal, both federal and regional. There are no details in the viral posts that could help verify the information: no name of the young man, no indication of the place where the discovery allegedly occurred, no name of the jewelry house that supposedly valued it so highly. The only thing that can somehow help with finding additional information is photographs.

A reverse image search on Google Images shows that all the images appeared on the Internet long before the story we are considering. The image with the big shiny ball was for the first time published in British Media in 2019. Journalists reported that then British amateur archaeologist Aaron Smith found several fossils on a beach in Yorkshire, one of which belonged to the Jurassic period - its age was about 185 million years. The differences from the viral news lie not only in the origin of its protagonist and the place of discovery: the golden ball was not a thousand-year-old shell at all, but the mineral pyrite (it is sometimes also called fool’s gold because of its appearance, vaguely reminiscent of gold). There were no pearls inside either, but there were fossilized remains of Cleviceras - extinct cephalopods.

Despite the fact that the second photo with two shiny balls is not found in media publications about the discovery of Aaron Smith, it was taken by him and, apparently, also in Yorkshire. Amateur archaeologist published him on his Instagram on January 10, 2019 and noted that inside the mysterious balls were ammonites Eleganticeras (another name for the same Cleviceras), which, according to Smith, can only be found in Yorkshire. Smith’s account contains hundreds of posts with photos and videos dedicated to his other archaeological research and interesting finds.

As for the last photo with a black pearl, allegedly valued at 27 million rubles, it is also used has been on the Internet for several years now, and is found in thematic collections among other images of this gem. Presumably, it was first published in one of the advertisements in the online store “Crafts Fair", where creative goods are sold, including replicas of precious stones. Moreover, the size of the pearl indicated in the ad is far from the 5 cm stated in viral publications - it was only 2.18 carats (about 8.5 mm).

The earliest publication with a story about a lucky teenager found by “Verified” was made on April 8, 2024 in the group “Obi" on the social network VKontakte (487,000 views). This is not the first time this group has become the primary source of partially or completely fictitious news, which is then widely distributed across the Internet. For example, "Verified" is already sorted it out a fictional story about a resident of Kamchatka who went into the forest to pick mushrooms and found a treasure worth 79 million rubles. The first publication about this find also appeared in the “Obi” group, and after some time it spread to other sites.

Thus, “Verified” did not find evidence that a certain teenager from Krasnodar found shells on the seashore more than a thousand years old with unique large pearls inside. No details are provided in the posts that could be used to confirm this story, and the only clue - photographs - definitely have nothing to do with the published story.

Cover photo: social networks