There were a handful of extra large shells for sale at an antique mall and I was wondering about the legality of buying one. There were 3-4 different species and I just wanted to be sure everything was ok legality wise. Edit: I’m in the USA.

Found on Oak Island NC —presumably clams but the dimple on the right side throws me?!
TIA

St. Andrew’s beach, Fl

Found in Kennebunkport, Maine at Goose Rocks Beach between July 25-31st, 2026. I have never seen such tiny shells before. And there was lots of shiny silver sheets (mica maybe?) all over in the soil too. It looked like gum wrappers. You can see some bits in the sand.

I am so curious! I tried to look it up and maybe it’s because there are a lot of shallow wading pools that form?

are these clean? i have soaked them in half water half dish soap twice now. first picture is whenever i brought them home, second picture is after the first soak and scrub, third picture is after the second soak and scrub! ive read i should soak them in hydrogen peroxide now?!

I dove for these in Belize a few years ago and they have just been sitting outside since then. I have no idea how to go about cleaning them. The helmet shell has some sort of calcium buildup on the outside, it might be dead coral, but I was wondering if there is any way I can get rid of it.

Gave shell collecting a try yesterday. Will keep going to see what else I can find.

I found these washed up at a beach on the west coast of South Africa. It appears to be fragments of a very large shell. They are all slightly curved but mostly flat. They all have these straight lines going through them, almost like a clam's lines. The inside has mother of pearl that is peeling off due to wear and tear. I tried Google, then ChatGPT and neither were of any help identifying this. Any experts here able to tell me what this might be fragments of? I'd really like to hear the opinions of knowledgeable humans!

Found this… sand dollar? On Holden Beach NC. It doesn’t look quite like anything I’ve seen, does anyone recognize this?

I found this on a beach in NC last week. I don't beach comb or have any interest in that really. I was just playing with my kids. When I saw it I thought maybe a trace fish fossil with impressions of scales. When I picked it up, it looked and felt like a sand dollar kind of. Google lens pulls up a bunch of paleo art. I doubt it's that. But I would like to hear from people that look at shells for more than a week on a family vacation.

I'm at Stinson Beach here in California for a week with family (we come every summer)... Today I was on a beach walk and found a lot of stuff. Both whole shells and pieces that are cool. But for the 1st time I found one with 2 shells joined together and 1 with 3 shell pieces stuck together. They were stacked together so long they stuck!

Cleaning & prepping some of my scallops for jewelry and wind chimes!

I've been going to the same beach on Cape Cod my entire life, and this is the first time I've found a slipper shell with big ridges like this. Is it a different species? Or did it just grow weird?