Civil war military ring??

[krazyglue]

Hi everyone,
My brother found this at an old Victorion style home last year. This particular house carried the reputation of being a major route of the underground railroad in the civil war era. Unfortunately the building has been demolished and the site is for the most part undetectable anymore. The size of the loop or band of this ring? is the same diameter of a penny. The face of the ring is approx. 3/4 the size of a dime. This item appears to have been casted or molded because the loop has a very fine ridge on the inside circumference and outside circumference. Also on the left side of the face there is a tiny piece of metal ( like a breakoff point ) such as a mold would have.
The color of the metal is gray toned. What the metal is, I don't know. Could this be a ring, or perhaps a neckerchief slide, or a wax seal stamp, or a ?......?.......? It would be great to hear everyones thoughts. It would be terrific to get it identified.
Also found within three feet of this item, was an 1857 Canadian large cent,( if that might be an indication of the approx. age of the ring ). It was also found in NW Indiana.
Thanks

 

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[krazyglue]

Doggone it fellow TH'ers. I thought those pictures looked fine before I posted them! I even got on the photo touchup site and reduced the kilobytes to the required size. They sure didn't look bad then.I guess I have lots more to learn. Sorry for the poor quality, and why it's off-center is beyond me. I guess its time to visit the photo help forum, ( instead of looking at all the neat stuff on the other forums.
Krazyglue

 

[nhbenz]

I like it! Well it has "The Great Seal of The United States" on it, which may or may not point to military use. It doesn't seem like it would make a very comfortable ring (with that ridge on the inside). But I can't think of just what it would be...maybe a decorative part of a horse bridle? Anyway, it does look quite old, nice find!

 

[krazyglue]

That makes sense about not being a ring. Plus I can barely slip it past my pinky fingernail. Being part of some horse equipment sounds pretty good.

 

[Monty]

Don't know what the corect name for it is but could it be one of those stamps to seal a letter with wax? The shape would make it easier to stamp with. Monty

 

[lionhrt9]

HEY KRAZY!!!

That would be excellent if it was an ol seal stamp!!! Hope for the best brother!!!!

HH

 

[nhbenz]

I dunno'... most wax sealing stamps I've seen would have a post to grab, rather than a ring. And generally the stamping tool has an inverse (concave?) figure, so as to leave the wax stamp raised like the figure we're seeing. I don't think I described that very well, someone help me! Anyway, I think its a VERY nice find and surely quite old.

 

[krazyglue]

Thanks nhbenz. I'll find out eventually.Think I'm going to take a trip to some antique stores to get some opinions.

 

[Monty]

Just the way it's put togethe rand the extremely small size makes me think it's not a ring. I can't imagine some kid wearing a ring like this. If it's not a seal, I give up. I don't know that much about seals anyway. Monty

 

[lordmarcovan]

Some rings were made to act as seals.

That's a neat find. I dunno whether it's a seal or a ring or both, but I am nearly certain it's not from the Civil War period. The eagle on Civil War period buttons and such was different. That Great Seal motif has certainly been around since the early days, but it wasn't adopted on military buttons and such until around 1902.

I strongly suspect that is a 20th century item. Early 20th century, maybe, so it's indeed old, but it ain't from the Civil War.

I could be wrong, of course. But I'm 95% certain that it's less than a century old.

 

[lordmarcovan]

PS- your "neckerchief slide" theory sounds pretty good to me. If not that, then something similar. I think you're warm, there.

 

[nhbenz]

What I find intriguing is how crudely made the ring section was made, yet the face of it has pretty nice detail. Krazy, would it possible to get a clearer picture of the front? I really think this is a pretty nice item.

 

[lionhrt9]

Krazy get that camera I gave ya tuned up man!!! hehehehehe Just take a bunch of close ups with the lighting set up different ways, give me a call.

 

[krazyglue]

It's been a while since I've had a chance to get on the computer. Sorry for the delay in responding to all. I'm having problems with the camera at this time so I can't repost any pics until I figure it out. The darn thing keeps shutting off on me when it's on camera mode.
Haven't had a chance to go to any antique dealers either,so I'm no closer to a correct ID than I was in the beginning. Hopefully, tomorrow or this weekend I will be able to seek some opinions in person. There is some good ideas that all have posted, and thanks for the input. I will eventually find out, and let everyone know.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Nice ring and also congrats on the large cent

The ring looks like a cast that was never finished.

They cast these, ground them down and then polished them.

Badger