Rare Find At Barley Neck Makes For Perfect Valentine’s Gift

ORLEANS – You never know what you’ll find when you go out for oysters. Just ask Brad Lussier.

 The Orleans resident was out with friends partaking in “Buck a Shuck” night at the Barley Neck Inn when he came upon a rare find.

 “It was a nice-looking pearl,” he said. “It was perfectly round on one side and had a little dimple on what I call the backside. It was bright white. I had it in my hand and the gal behind the bar, Ashley, she said ‘Wait, wait, let me get a picture.’”

 Lussier said he was on his third littleneck when he made the discovery, a white pearl about three-eighths of an inch in size.

 “When I saw the picture afterward, it was big in my hand,” he said. “But it was rather amazing.”

 Having grown up in Rhode Island, Lussier said he knows a thing or two about quahogs. Finding such a pearl is unusual, he said, but a little additional research online shed some light on just how much so. From his research, he deduced that there’s a 1 in 5,000 chance of finding such a pearl.

 Lussier saw online that similar pearls have sold for as much as $16,000, but he had other plans. He took the pearl to S&R Jewellers on Route 6A, where he had it made into a necklace for his wife. It’s now mounted on the couple’s wall.

 “I had an idea already of how I wanted it mounted, just a drop on a chain with a nice fancy bail,” he said. “They put a pad on the back and glued it on. It hangs nicely and looks great.”

 The end result was not only a perfect Valentine's Day gift, but a birthday gift as well. 

 “And I learned a long time ago that there damn well better be two presents on Valentine's Day,” Lussier joked.

 Word quickly spread about Lussier’s rare find after staff at the Barley Neck posted a photo of it on social media.

 “I took my wife there the next day, because I wanted to bring another tip to the girl behind the bar,” he said. “She wasn’t there, but I talked to another girl and said ‘I was in here yesterday…’ and she stopped me and said ‘We know who you are.’ She opened her phone and showed me the picture. They posted it everywhere. I’m a celebrity there now.”