Pure what?

[romeo-1]

I found this ring last night in my side field. I believe it is just a junk ring but there are markings as noted in the picture. "PURE G (crown) R" is etched inside the ring. Any significance? Age? Thanks.

 

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[wildrider]

Pure Fake

You find alot of these in CW areas. But, they generally aren't even this nice.

Burt

 

[romeo-1]

Fake what? Formerly gold plated copper ring? I actually found out that GR is Georgius Rex or King George. Now I just got to figure out which King George...

 

[diggummup]

Fake what? Formerly gold plated copper ring?

Yeah,exactly. You can see the gold that is still present in the recessed areas where it has been "stamped".

 

[CRUSADER]

Pure Fake

You find alot of these in CW areas. But, they generally aren't even this nice.

Burt

I guess you mean that they were passing them off as solid gold?

 

[wildrider]

Well, I'd venture to say that there have been a long line of con artists since way back.

"Psst...hey bud, that fella just croaked and he don't need this any more. Whatta ya say you give me $10 for this pure gold ring, worth at least $50."

I've heard that married men in the CW would often leave their actual rings at home for their families and purchase
a cheap fake from a sutler as a surrogate reminder.

Burt

 

[Jim West Pa]

Burt is correct Romeo 'bout findin these in CW sites. I have dug 3 so far.The story i have found is that during the war folks jist couldn't afford solid gold so there were rings made of other metals such as brass or copper, I even dug one made of iron,and they were then plated...cost much less than solid.There is also another aspect here, There were rings made of rose gold that will in fact loose thier color over the years in the dirt. If these are properly cleaned by a good jeweler they will get thier color back.
As you can see in the pic, mine is stamped 18K but looks colorless. I have found two of these same rings at the same site.
I even have one that is made of two metals, appears to be gold and copper, with the forementioned surrounded buy the later.

 

[Rob66]

18k copper?

 

[DANGLANGLEY]

Very nice find there. I would be tickled to death to find that old relic of a ring.

 

[Jim West Pa]

18k copper?

NO dunn, not copper. This i believe is one of the rose gold ones i talked about. It is such a cool find, (btw,a couple weeks later i found an exact match at the same site), that i don't want to have it cleaned.

 

[Jim West Pa]

Very nice find there. I would be tickled to death to find that old relic of a ring.

Check this out Dang, here are two other examples that i spoke of.One is of the bi-metal type, gold with a copper "fill",Notice it is stamped18KII, and besides the 18K rose gold one, here is the iron one with gold plate, it is difficult to see but there is still some of the gold plating on the inside of the ring. It is also stamped 18K

 

[Ralphw]

very cool and interesting finds... all of them