Riddle me this: When is an 18k ring not gold?

[TrpnBils]

Asking for a friend of mine who's not on TNet... He was invited to hunt a site by another friend of his that they believe to be a colonial camp site adjacent to a colonial era house. The friend pulled 9 coins dating from 1730 - 1832 and my friend pulled a 17?? KGII coin of some denomination that he's not certain of yet. Next to that coin he pulled out a ring. I'm trying to get a picture from him but his phone is ancient and not cooperating. I've seen it in person and it doesn't look gold to me (although I don't know what 275 year old gold looks like either), but it is clearly stamped 18k on the inside of the ring. There's no guarantee that it's from the same time period as the coins he's digging, but this is in the middle of the woods with nothing but this old house around, so it seems like a good bet it's from that time frame.

The problem is where it rings up. He found it with his Etrac and I double checked it with my CTX and it comes up as a 12-41/42. It's a man's ring most likely because it's got some size to it, but I've not seen gold come up that high...if those numbers don't mean anything to you, that's where zinc pennies come up and just below wheats and silvers.

The ring's color reminds me of brass or copper maybe, but not gold....it just doesn't have that tone to it and I don't know why it would be ringing up that high.

What do you all think? I don't know when they started stamping jewelry like that, but considering everything else around there that has been pulled is British or Irish, might it mean something else coming from Europe if that's where it originated?

 

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[nsdq]

Could 18k gold filled but with out pics ?

 

[TrpnBils]

Yeah I wondered about that, but I have found gold filled before and they've all been marked. In fact, one of them was a big man's ring like this one is and rang up fairly low compared to this. Higher than gold, yes, but not as high as 41-42. I'll see if he can get his flip phone fired up tonight and get me a pic.

 

[BARKER]

Hi; The "KARAT" System was first used about 1478 in London. So a date by the Karat mark is almost impossible to find. If the ring does date to the 18th Century then it is possible that the Owner actually bought a bogus gold ring that could be Gold Filled Silver with a fake Karat Mark. If it is Modern then I believe it would be 18K as stated. The only real way to know is to take it to a jeweler and have it tested ok. Good Luck. PEACE:RONB

 

[TrpnBils]

Hi; The "KARAT" System was first used about 1478 in London. So a date by the Karat mark is almost impossible to find. If the ring does date to the 18th Century then it is possible that the Owner actually bought a bogus gold ring that could be Gold Filled Silver with a fake Karat Mark. If it is Modern then I believe it would be 18K as stated. The only real way to know is to take it to a jeweler and have it tested ok. Good Luck. PEACE:RONB

Great information - thanks!

It's so hard to even get a relative date here because all of these coins have been less than 5 inches deep. The 17?? coin he dig with this ring was only about 3" down....

 

[cudamark]

A couple of possibilities........if it' big enough, it will read that high......or it's a fake. They had them back then too. An acid test should tell the tale.