Shankh testing (श्री श्रीकान्त कजरिया )

Shankh testing
As there are a lot of fakes in the market, the best way to test the authenticity of a Shankha is by getting an X-Ray of it. See the two sets of pictures given here. These are photographs of the X-Ray pictures. The real X-Ray pictures show even the minor dents and spots etc. of the Shankha.

Shankha and its X-Ray pictures
One of the main features of a genuine Shankha is the rib/ridge like horizontal raised lines, at the inside opening. These ridges in the conch cavity, called Pilae, go through the inside of the Shankha center, called columella, right to the top. People can create fake ridges on the outside of the opening by carefully filing away a part of it and leaving out 3 or 4 faint raised lines to make it look like a real Dakshinavarti, but one thing no one can fake is this inside spiraling of the ridges to the top. This is shown clearly in the X-Ray.
But there are people now who are producing fake Dakshinavartis with fake lines.
Shankh X-Rays
First they were selling the Lightning Whelk as the rare Dakshinavarti Shankha. Warnings posted with pictures in many websites, including this site, made people aware of this. Then they started faking three or four lines at the inside opening of the Lightning Whelk to make it look more authentic. X-Ray can expose this. The Dakshinavarti fakers are getting smarter but the X-Ray photographs give a very good picture of how they are faked. See how the fakes can be caught as shown in the two pictures bellow. See the faked ridges on the Lightning Whelk (busycon contrarium) picture to the left and how they don’t show in the X-Ray picture on the right.

Shankh X-Rays to catch the fakes
Don’t be fooled just because the x-ray shows the ribs spiraling upwards. You must know how and what to see in an x-ray.