Found a brass ring? Marked 18k?

["Dr.Tones"]

Hey guys, I found this the other day at a circa 1890 house. Looks like any other period brass ring to me but it has an18k stamp on it. Out of curiosity I made a small scratch to see what was under the corrosion... Looks very much like gold. Hmmm.... Should I clean it or leave it? I mean... I know gold doesn't tarnish like this... But a guy can still hope right?

 

[TheGeorgiaCanuck]

How many grams does it weigh?

 

["Dr.Tones"]

11.21g

 

[TwoRivers]

Maybe it was 18K plated........or it was in a low heat fire.....hot enough to allow other minerals to coat it?.........

If it was mine I'd probably use electrolosis on it.................

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Depending on where you live you may have found a cilvil war wedding band. If killed you were stripped of the gold for the war effort.They were made to take into war and were of brass and marked 14k or 18k. The brass was worthless so it couldn't be used. I have found one about 15 years ago and it was thought to be one?
BCNJ

 

[Rick(ND)]

Up here in ND some of us have found a few of them and were told these were made of copper or brass and polished to look like gold and sold by traveling salesman to the farmers and those not able to get to town much to buy a wedding ring for the future brides. I understand 18K and 24 K is very soft gold and will bend easy.


Rick

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Still not sure ... Clean it or leave it? What do you guys say?

 

[GKMan]

I found one just like that a couple weeks ago, stamped 18k also. Nice to see it come out of the ground even if it wasn't really gold

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

I would head to a trained professional with that baby!

 

[jas415]

Seems to me there are only two options, it is either brass or somehow is discolored gold. The brass ring is virtually worthless (unless you are extremely attached to it), so why not do a cleanup on it? I would do the electrolysis and if it is brass and it comes clean, great, you have a clean brass ring. If it is gold and comes clean, great, you now have several hundred dollars worth of scrap gold. There is NOTHING to lose by cleaning it.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Thanks for the help guys and nice find killmerg

 

[doc1964]

I've found a few of them over the past few years as well - my understanding from some of the "old timers" in our club is that back in the day they bought what they could afford - plated rings that were marked as gold.

 

[LandOLincoln]

I have one that is marked 10k but the 10k actually looks like gold. The rest of the rink looks like yours.

 

[Fired89]

It was a imported gold plated ring and they would stamp 18 k on it so it could be imported in the u.s. I think sometimes in the early 1900 it had something to do about importing gold in the u.s. from Italy it's be to long ago that I had ran across it somewhere doing some Research on something else i could be wrong tho

 

[scubadetector]

It isn't gold thats for sure. Gold, espicially 18K doesn not tarnish no matter what ground its in. I found one that was marked 14K and that tarnished a long time ago.

 

[jtalley007]

It appears where money is concerned there have always been crooks?

I know overall peoples morals were way better years ago but I have seen 8 reale coins that were a thin silver shell over copper or some other metal and those were dated late 1700's

Buried Craps story seems interesting but I was wondering if it looked gold and was marked 18k then wouldn't they have taken it off a dead soldier thinking it was real?

All civil war bands I have found were only brass from the get go but may have been plated at some point as well.

Really neat either way, sure someone has seen one before?