Gold Ring 14K Shows Speckling

[DrJoePrime]

Found this ring in the wet sand a few days ago. It's the 6th gold ring from this beach. They've all come out pretty shiny with a few abraded from the sand. My latest ring, I think, is very old and might have been sitting there waiting for me to find it for possibly 50 or 60 years!


This 14K one has brownish speckling which is unsightly. It resists mild rubbing with cloth. I suspect it's from the alloying with copper but is there a good way of cleaning it up (short of buffing)?

Second question: Does anyone know when the karat stamping of jewelery began in the USA?

HH Joe

[Tom_Restorer]

I think 14 K is the same as 333 in germany, so it has aprox 30% copper.
What you see there is copper turned into cuprit.
It is to clean chemicaly. I don´t spread my receips arround but you can go to a jeweler and he can clean it for small money if you wanna keep this "not so old" piece.

Tom