Thank you Fred for pointing out the discrepencies, I learned a lot. Were these sold as prayer beads? I'm thinking that the wood beads don't have the nice patina that I would expect from old wood beads that have been handled a lot. If these are prayer beads I have a question. How long have wood beads been used as prayer beads? It just goes to show that you can sell anything if it's packaged right! Someone is laughing......