Not a Herkimer this time....

[billjustbill]

It was later in the morning by the time we arrived at this group of garage sales. A garage seller in a community garage sale tried to get more money...

By the time we got there, nobody had paid much attention to the open and displayed plated jewelry... When I looked at them, the lady rather quickly said, "I'll take $5 for BOTH...."

Later, I'll post the pic of original 3 piece box. Doing several Internet searches it appears the necklace and earrings of costume/plated jewelry sold by the Carnival Cruise Lines....under the name of "Tara Vanessa".... The high markup in a cruise ship's store is reflected in the barcode sticker on the inside of the blue box... "Retail: $120.00".

The older couple, most likely in their early 70's, had pulled the large Rhinestone necklace from the blue satin box set and put a thin necklace and pendant in its place. They marked the 3-piece box "$5" and then... and to add to their profits, they marked the large plated necklace "$5".... [/i] Since the thin chain just "looked" different, and that my wife collects newer and old Rhinestone jewelry, I handed the lady a $5 bill for both and walked away with my eyes on their neighbor's garage sale.....

When I got home, I pulled the earrings and their studs showed to be well worn, but were unmarked plate. When I pulled the large loose plated necklace that should have been in the box from the bottom of the plastic bag they gave me, I realized that it matched the earrings.... I carefully pulled the thin necklace from the box's display background.... I see it's stamped "A-O" and 14kt and in two places.... It's White Gold, so it appears to be Silver... I then looked at the pendant, and inside the bail is stamped 14kt. Including the stone, the necklace weighs 2.5 grams.

Getting a bit shaky, I looked at the stone under my 16x magnifier... you can see some inclusion flaws and lots of tiny black specs.... I took one of my better Brown & Sharp micrometers and measured the width of the stone inside its setting. When converted from thousandths to millimeters, and it matches the measurements of a 3/4 carat diamond.....

See what you think.

[woodstock]

Great find ! The best way to judge a stone is by weight . Now if you going to scrap it then you can know exactly what you've got. But that's still a sweet find ! Happy Trails, Woodstock

[J-dude]

Great find!

[FreedomUIC]

Maybe I can help out on this one. When we upgraded my wife's diamond in her wedding set, we specifically asked for the diamond back. It came back to us in a holder identical to what you have now. We had to purchase a gold/silver necklace for her to wear it......

[billjustbill]

Great find ! The best way to judge a stone is by weight . Now if you going to scrap it then you can know exactly what you've got. But that's still a sweet find ! Happy Trails, Woodstock

Thanks to you and the other fellows' for your information and insights. I found a conversion chart that changes the weight in carrats to grams.
http://www.metric-conversions.org/we...s-to-grams.htm
If it is a 3/4 carrat diamond, the chart said it weighs: .15 of a gram Which means there's 2.35 grams of 14kt in the setting and chain.

On Friday, I found a stray hoop earring looped inside a Rhinestone hoop earring. It was stamped 14kt. I paid $1 for the pair to get it.....

So, all totalled for this Friday-Saturday weekend, I found 94 grams of .925 silver and 3.35 grams of 14kt.

I spent a total of $23.60 (.10-cents for a toe ring) for the silver:

Weight of Alloy 94.00 Grams - 60.45 Dwts - 3.023 Troy Ozs
Alloy Silver of 0.925 Purity
Weight of Metal 2.796 Troy Oz of Pure Silver
Price Used 32.10 USD / Troy Oz
Value of Metal: $89.75 USD


Spent $6 for the gold.

Weight of Alloy 3.35 Grams - 2.15 Dwts - 0.108 Troy Ozs
Alloy Gold of 0.583 Purity
Weight of Metal 0.063 Troy Oz of Pure Gold
Price Used 1,679.00 USD / Troy Oz
Value of Metal: $105.44 USD

If the Diamond is a true 3/4 carrat, this weekend has been: Priceless

[billjustbill]

Later, I'll post the pic of original 3 piece box. Doing several Internet searches it appears the necklace and earrings of costume/plated jewelry sold by the Carnival Cruise Lines....under the name of "Tara Vanessa".... The high markup in a cruise ship's store is reflected in the barcode sticker on the inside of the blue box... "Retail: $120.00".

Here are pics of how the diamond necklace was found with the seller unknowingly trying to make the thin necklace "Look" better, but actually it was 14kt gold with a pendant's 3/4 carrat diamond....

The second picture is how the three piece jewelry should have looked and was sold in one of the cruise ship's gift shops....

Keep your eyes open, your time to find one is next...