Unknown marking on earring

[Armorer73]

Need some help. I was walking out of a store today and found an earring on the ground. It has a marking of INV 14K on the stem. Does anyone know what it means? I did a search on here and didn't find any matches.

Armorer

 

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[Dogtirednj]

The only time I've seen "INV" on jewelry was in Norway, but it was followed by the designers initials.

 

[Armorer73]

The only time I've seen "INV" on jewelry was in Norway, but it was followed by the designers initials.

In all of my research I have seen it stand for INVISIBLE (referring to the diamond setting) and INVENTOR (referring to the craftsman). The earring did have a "diamond" like stone but I do not have a tester.

 

[lab rat]

INV could be for investment casting, or possibly INVAR - a type of stainless steel. So this could refer to the post, or else it is a plated base metal object.

14k means 14/24 pure gold by weight, give or take 1/24. This could refer to just the plating (usually marked 14KGP = '14k gold plated' or 14KGF '14k gold filled'. '14KP' means '14k plum', which means exactly 14/24 purity.)

If you could post a picture (zoom in close please!) we -might- be able to determine if it is 14k gold with a stainless steel post, though ultimately it should be taken to a jeweler for testing.