When these beads entered the market in 1974 they were routinely very shiny and new-looking. (Now, thirty-five years later, my beads still look like this.) It was a few years later that someone decided they could be used in fake Naga constructions, whereupon they were usually said to be "old." To make this more plausible, the beads were matted and dirtied.

The idea that they became this way 'through use' buys into the false notion that these beads have had some history of use. They were made in factories, and exported, and sold under false pretenses.

I am reasonably sure their condition (surface characteristics) is contrived.

Jamey