Sample Class Ring?

[halfdime]

I had a few minutes to run the detector in my mother's yard yesterday (after cleaning up leaves, of course) and got a weak signal that produced this ring. I could see the green "stone" right away and was sad to see no evidence that the ring was gold. I cleaned it up, and it just says "HIGH SCHOOL" around the stone. There is no date. The motto "E PLURIBUS UNUM" can be found in small letters on each side, above the eagle. There is the remains of some sort of plating. Could this have been a salesman's sample? Pretty stout to be a toy from a gumball machine.

 

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[against the wind]

It's an imitation High School ring from the 60's.
Congratulations

 

[halfdime]

It's an imitation High School ring from the 60's.
Congratulations

Pretty common, then?

 

[A2coins]

That's kinda cool!!!!! Plus at least you found something!! Many times I go out and come back with the dreaded Goose egg O

 

[Loco-Digger]

Pretty common, then?

I don't think they are too common, but I have seen a few posted since I became a member here on tnet. The poor mans's class ring or those who could not afford one made of precious metal.

 

[against the wind]

Pretty common, then?

Common with the "Drop Out Crowd "

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on your find

 

[RustyGold]

Different, so cool!

 

[texjim]

Cant say that i have ever seen a sample ring posted.. Congrats

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very interesting find, congratulations!

 

[scruggs]

Neat find!

 

[CASPER-2]

I found a few of those when I was younger - I almost remember those coming out of a large "gumball" machine they were inside
plastic containers - they are made of white metal type material

 

[Evolution]

That's a cool find. I'd be happy with that.

 

[digger27]

Cant say that i have ever seen a sample ring posted.. Congrats

Let me show you another one.
There are many kinds of these, several on ebay.
Some are junk metal with a thin gold plating, some are plated a bit more heavily, some are made with actual high school names of the schools the salesmen were visiting to give the kids a real idea of what they would look like and some are just generic.
I found one that I believe is the rarest type because it is actually solid gold but not exactly 10k because it doesn't test quite right...10k acid doesn't dissolve it all the way but it does a bit more than real 10k even though it is clearly marked 14k.
Mine is probably pretty old and more like 8-9k to keep it shiny and new looking but it is also generic.

A total confusing heartbreaker at the time I found it but it eventually turned out to be turned out to be one of my coolest finds because these a rare find for detectorist and a solid gold one especially so.
A heartbreaker because I was running out of time to hit a goal of finding 12 gold targets for the year, bad weather was coming in to shut me down and I had found 11 to that point.
Luckily two days later I found a real 14k gold ring but even though this one is solid gold I wasn't counting anything under 10k on this year long quest...the standard for gold jewelry in this country.

Mine just said HIGH SCHOOL on the front, no date and some odd designs on the sides.
It looks worn to me, it was pretty deep in a very old park or it just might not have been made to look real sharp because it is just a sample.
It is solid gold, I cut deep into it to make sure and it is definitely not plated plus it came up perfectly clean like real gold tends to do.
Plated gold never looks this perfect after taking a long dirt nap and I have seen a couple of others posted that look like halfdime's but always wrecked like his.

Because I have never seen an actual solid gold salesman's sample ring posted on any forum by any other hunter so far this one ended up to be one of my more odd but cherished finds to this day.

Great find, halfdime...still a rare find so welcome to the club!

 

[RW]

I have seen them most in horror movies that portray the pop culture of the 60-70's... The scummy "player" from back in the day always had a glove box full of imitation class rings so he could "go steady" with every girl in the county if only for one night. Never works out well in the movie formula as the stud always meets with a gruesome death or at the very least the girls tosses the ring in the mother's yard...

 

[WaterScoop]

Nevertheless cool find!



Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[jodan3399]

Back when everyone "had" to have one, not everyone could afford them.

My dad was lucky and was able to earn enough working all summer to get one, many of his friends couldn't.