I can only speak from hunch, description, the patterns that imply some sort of growth patterns (rings, sort of) and the fact that not ALL elephant ivory displays the characteristic cross-hatch patterns....hate to mention it, but the old hammer test might settle the mystery! This could only happen if you decided that one bead was appropriately damaged or odd enough, and with the commitment to restring.......they are nice looking beads, and the choice of the stringer to use good silver implies, for me at least, a certain regard for the other beads.....