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That's a Nice Oldie.....Most are not use to seeing Gold rings that do not have a Finesse, Makers mark or Hallmarks. But In the USA before 1906/1907 it was not required or the Law. I know for several years it was rare for me to find them with nothing until I came across this one old beach. I would bet I have 40 unmarked gold rings from this spot. With no mark and the design of the ring  ..helps me date the them.

Dubbed the Jeweler's Liability Act, this 1906 law outlined specific restrictions for the packaging, labeling and sale of gold and silver items with purity marks in the United States. ... It became illegal to sell something as a specific purity of silver or gold if the item was not actually made of the stated purity

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22 hours ago, CCadrin said:

IMG_3780.jpg

I've heard of the bite test to determine whether an item is gold or not but I didn't know you could hire an alligator to perform that for you.

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53 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

That's a Nice Oldie.....Most are not use to seeing Gold rings that do not have a Finesse, Makers mark or Hallmarks. But In the USA before 1906/1907 it was not required or the Law. I know for several years it was rare for me to find them with nothing until I came across this one old beach. I would bet I have 40 unmarked gold rings from this spot. With no mark and the design of the ring  ..helps me date the them.

Dubbed the Jeweler's Liability Act, this 1906 law outlined specific restrictions for the packaging, labeling and sale of gold and silver items with purity marks in the United States. ... It became illegal to sell something as a specific purity of silver or gold if the item was not actually made of the stated purity

Over the years I have found some unmarked gold that I knew was old. Not as many as you have though ! Some , I have thought the Mark's have just worn off. So how do you determine the age primarily within a close range ? Is it by the design , script , etc. Such as art-deco or Victorian ? Websites or books on determining the age of rings ? I know you could be putting an age based on the history of sites you hunt. But even then jewelry was passed down through generations. If a swim site ceased in say 1900 , I would think you could still have a ring from say 1800. Thanks...

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I could easily be wrong but the ring looks gold filled to me, not solid gold, or has that already been confirmed?

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Let me use the rings found from the site I started finding the unmarked gold rings as a example ....how I date them from that beach. I use pictures, any history of the area, the design of the rings, coins found, type of stone / the cut, then the wear on the ring .... script types... and previous dated rings found to narrow down the age of a unmarked ring. This beach opened to the public in the 1890's. But like you said that does not put the ring found at that date because maybe that beach was used earlier or even someone in their 60's could have lost there gold ring from there early years. At this spot the oldest dated gold ring I know of is 1857, the oldies dated I found is 1861, then I have several others dates, 1877, 1881, and a few 1890's.  I think because I have found so many from the late 1800's to the 1960's,  I can get fairly close on the age and time period of a ring but would not call myself anything more than a good guesser..Just like every beach is different, so can be the styles wore in different time periods from different areas.   

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53 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

I could easily be wrong but the ring looks gold filled to me, not solid gold, or has that already been confirmed?

This is how I tested it. I scratched the stone with bigger marks than normal. My guess the scratch was 3/4" long, 1/8 wide. Three of them. I put 10k, 14k, and 18k acid. The 18 acid ate it up immediately. I left the acid on the lines for over 10 minutes as I took a shower. The 10 and 14 lines were still present. Also, the density of the ring feels heavy for its size. 

Without destroying the ring, if there is a better way to test, please help me out.

 

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I take advantage of this discussion to ask you if there is a way to know when the marking on jewelry was introduced in spain?

I looked well on google but I can not find anything, for France we know the dates well but not Spain.

because I found some rings in spain of 18k but which are not marked. of course we can not find in relation to the date of the beach since from time to time we find coins 2000 years old and more on these beaches ...

Joe, apart from coins, how do you manage to date beaches? or are you looking for documentation?

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17 minutes ago, CCadrin said:

This is how I tested it. I scratched the stone with bigger marks than normal. My guess the scratch was 3/4" long, 1/8 wide. Three of them. I put 10k, 14k, and 18k acid. The 18 acid ate it up immediately. I left the acid on the lines for over 10 minutes as I took a shower. The 10 and 14 lines were still present. Also, the density of the ring feels heavy for its size. 

Without destroying the ring, if there is a better way to test, please help me out.

 

If the ring is heavily corroded, that likely means that the metal is breaking down. Even 10 karat gold will not corrode. Also, in the photos, it looks like the thin gold plating is flaking around the edges.

You could try electrolysis. That would clean away any tarnish. The ring will be all shiny gold if it's solid.

 

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30 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

If the ring is heavily corroded, that likely means that the metal is breaking down. Even 10 karat gold will not corrode. Also, in the photos, it looks like the thin gold plating is flaking around the edges.

You could try electrolysis. That would clean away any tarnish. The ring will be all shiny gold if it's solid.

 

Will do. I'll try it tomorrow. 

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