Rings wt misleading marks

[flash5153]

Have you ever found a ring with a 10k,14k,ect.. mark in it, then find out its not what it says?

I have these 3 .
The large (gold) ring on the right is marked 14k. It has 9 CZ stones in it. I really thought I had something when I found this. It was very bad looking ,for gold, when it came out of the dirt but I thought maybe something about the soil made it that way. It cleaned up very nice, fooled many ,,,,including myself for awhile. Until I went and had it checked. It may have some gold in it but is brass based. A dealer buying gold scrap offered me $90 ,lol, this was right after I found it. I told him no,,, bcuz at that time I really thought it was worth allot more and I hadnt had the stones checked at that time either. Once I found out what I had ,(junk, but looks good) I will not try to cheat anyone out of their money. Thats why I still have it.

The middle mothers ring, is marked 10k, but is plated. I can see in some places where it is thin and base metal is showing through. Once again ,,,at first,,,,, its a good looking ring.

Ring at left is marked .925. I'm really not sure if it is .925 silver. It might be ,,but has a tarneshed look to it in some places that makes me believe it is not.

Makes me wonder how often this happens, someone got cheated on these rings.(not me,although I feel I have been,,LOL)

Good Luck

 

[mwaynebennett]

"Gold" items can be verified using nitric acid. I'm not certain absent a spectrographic analysis, how to know if a "sterling" silver item is indeed silver.

Mark
Elite 2200

 

[dave5710]

They are most likely imported from Mexico. I recently found a large band with huge a 18K mark inside, 18K what I don't know, it wasn't gold, 18K brass maybe.
l

 

[jim tn]

A few years ago I bound a 18" gold chain in the grass and it was marked 14k Italy. Something about it made me have it checked and it was not gold. I hope the poor fellow that lost it didn't pay a 14k price. HH jim tn

 

[TABAGO]

well don't know about the gold but 925 silver will tarnish nice finds any way

 

[GRAY GHOST]

hey flash. sorry to hear about the three rings...it's happened to me before too. a lot of the rings and necklaces are marked italy or mexico. i found a 18" long necklace a couple of years ago [just like jim tn did] but something wasn't right about the color. i took it to a jeweler friend and he laughed at the piece, telling me it was a flea market knockoff. it just confirmed my suspicions. i got an education that day. an old buddy of mine went out and bought a gold tester - it's pretty accurate too, but i don't know where he got it from.
* under normal ground and sea conditions, gold doesn't tarnish. the purer it is, the more resistant it is.
* real silver very seldom tarnishes in the ground. i've pulled reales from the 1780's out of the ground, and they look just like they were dropped yesterday. silver tarnishes in the air and water to a deep black over a period of time.
* it seems there's just as much knockoff stuff in the world [if not more] than the real thing. congrats on finding the three rings, though. it was a good try on your behalf. hh!