I hope these beads aren't what I think they are

They're dyed...something. It's either coral or the dreaded ivory. With the dye I'm not sure if those are schreger lines or tree rings. I have a feeling they can't be sold.

 

I don't see ivory here. Not really the right grain & it goes every which way. Same thing regarding coral: wrong growth pattern. It's hard to make a determination with only the visuals to go by. Are they heavy? Very cold to the touch or not so much? If I had them in hand I would even want to know what it sounds like when you clink them together. Seeds of some type?

 

I'm thinking some of those lines look like fossil mammoth ivory in that they are too acute to be modern elephant but could be wrong.
Cheers
Stephen

 

The lines don't look like mammoth or elephant,more like some type of agate.

 

They're pretty hefty, but don't feel like any kind of stone. The color is dye, but an off color. I hadn't thought of mammoth.

 

As far as I know (which may not be far enough) ivory has been precious in all places at all times. I can't image anyone dying it this color or hacking it up into irregularly shaped & sized beads. Maybe if you were picking up discarded scraps from other work? These look fairly smooth/shiny. Ivory requires polishing to be glossy. Would someone make rough-hewn beads but go to the effort of polishing them?

My feeling is that they are vegetable rather than animal or mineral, that the varying sizes & shapes are dictated by how each one grew, perhaps some kind of nut that has been tumbled like rocks & dyed. Are they too tightly strung to get a look at the drill holes, maybe even get a glimpse inside?

Just had a thought. How about tagua nut, sometimes called vegetable ivory?

 

not ivory...

 

This space reserved for a post I thought was lost & repeated below.

 

Notice how variable the grain is:

 

I'm with Bronwen on the tagua nut. No ivory of any kind, no coral.

 

Bronwen... Your sleuthing eye did it again, I think
Tagua is called too vegetable ivory!

 

Because of my passion for cameos, I have seen & handled ivory & agate. Before cameos it was Zuni carvings, some of which are tagua nut, so knew it is pretty dense. None of my pieces have the grain, so had to check on whether you could get that with tagua. It seems to be a matter of whether the outer layer is left on or the item is cut only from the creamy part:

 

That's it. Phew. No one's banned nuts yet! If they did we'd all be illegal!