Just found an 18k white gold ring in my junk pile -Acid Testing

[diggummup]

Searching through a pile of my costume and junk jewelry and came across this ring. It's not marked so at first I thought it was milled stainless steel because it's shiny and not tarnished. Then I looked a little closer and noticed it looks hand worked on the front. For the heck of it I did an acid test with 18k solution. After 5 minutes it looked the same, no reaction at all. Then I got to thinking maybe it's platinum so I did a streak test with the platinum acid and the results were conclusive to 18k white gold. Here is the ring, it weighs 4.33 grams-







Here is the 18k solution after 5 minutes or so-







and the final test after several minutes, side by side with the platinum solution on the left, 18k on the right, notice the bronze type color on the left?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Beachkid23]

Congratulations on the new find! Love it when that happens!

 

[vpnavy]

Nice buy. Thanks for sharing...

 

[scaupus]

On first glance at the photo of face of ring, i didnt doubt it was gold..likewise happened to me....i looked closer at a junk infinity ring i' d thrown in the junk jar minths earlier, it was tiffany.

 

[ivan salis]

red and blue turquoise ... custom job most likely being unmarked..

 

[diggummup]

red and blue turquoise ... custom job most likely being unmarked..

Yeah, custom for sure. I don't know what the "stones" are though. That's the strange part. They are semi transparent, not turquiose or coral for sure. The red color looked like bakelite, but simichrome testing proved negative. They have small scratches and a gouge or two in them also. I haven't tried a hot needle yet, but I may have to. Don't know why they would put plastic in an 18k ring, but it does resemble it though, alot.

 

[2Minnesota]

Could they be precious stones like ruby and sapphire? Awesome find in the junk pile!

 

[billjustbill]

Great find, Diggummup!

When you think you've seen it all, I've learned to let some time pass, then go back and look again. I've been on a long learning curve with your help, and help from many others on the forum, and have seen things through the eyes of a "Gourde Green" beginner to one that's learned "a little" in the last few years. As we get ready for our own garage sales, my wife gets the gleaned costume jewelry ready. With another pair of eyes, and another bright L.E.D lighted magnifying glass, she's found things I missed!!

There is one dealer lady that is always out for jewelry and anything else she finds to sell, all on Ebay. Plus, she lives 20 miles away from this area. Rather than look through a box or tray, she'll make an offer and buy the whole thing! About once a year, she has a married daughter that runs a garage sale for her with tables and tables and tables of jewelry-filled plastic baggies. 90% of the stuff being costume jewelry. The lady is highly competitive and one of those kind of Dealers that goes knocking on garage sale doors at 6:00 A.M., just to beat everyone else. She drives like "A Bat out of Heaven"...., I wonder what her profit margin actually is when you see her minivan with dents, long scrapes, and even driving a "loaner/rent car". It's because when asked why she's in a different vehicle, her van is in the body shop due to her competitive-haste and break-neck speeding between garage sales...

If I come to a garage sale she's already been to, I've found some containers she's missed or flashed through. Last year, at two different sales on the same morning, I found a broken 15 gram, 14kt necklace and 4 gram child's 14kt bracelet she missed. Even at her/her daughter's massive jewelry sale, at $2 a bag, I've found 2 grams of 14kt they've missed....

I don't dare tell her what I find, especially from her sale, for fear she'll be knocking on doors at 4:00 A.M.!!!

"Nobody gets it all"....

Bill

 

[jerseyben]

Diggum: Very cool! I knew it was gold as soon as I saw the pics too.

The closest story I have is... Once I was getting rid of some of junk at a yard sale and a guy stopped by and asked if I had any jewelry. We got to chatting and I offered to let him go through my costume jewelry. He went through each and every piece. In the end, he put out his hand and dropped a few earrings into my hand. He told me they all had gold stems and that I should put them aside. I learned a valuable lesson that day and made a new friend in the process.

 

[diggummup]

Diggum: Very cool! I knew it was gold as soon as I saw the pics too.

The closest story I have is... Once I was getting rid of some of junk at a yard sale and a guy stopped by and asked if I had any jewelry. We got to chatting and I offered to let him go through my costume jewelry. He went through each and every piece. In the end, he put out his hand and dropped a few earrings into my hand. He told me they all had gold stems and that I should put them aside. I learned a valuable lesson that day and made a new friend in the process.

I remember someone on here mentioning (several years ago at least) that many vintage earring posts were gold but unmarked. Wasn't that you?

 

[billjustbill]

Digguum,

An 18ct story to share....

About 2 years ago, we bought some "costume jewelry" from a young relative of an estate of a WWII Registered Nurse. In the assortment of Rhinestone and other costume jewerly was a ring marked "18ct". With some search time on the NET, it turned out to be an old European mark for our present day 18kt. marking.

About a year ago, it was an early, still dark, arrival to an early Fall season garage sale where the owner had placed a large box-lid with all her bagged jewelry under the porch light. I always carry my palm size, 7X, L.E.D. magnifying glass, and with the baggies already priced, I used the additional light of the LED to see inside the band of a silver ring with stones. Picture in your mind a tiny bit more than the top half of the 18ct marking left showing inside the worn ring. Sure enough, when I tested the ring, it came out 18kt!

Without having experienced the first find, being a year later, and that the baggie was marked $6.00, I may have left the ring laying inside the box with the rest of costume jewelry! A "second look" or "second experience" ALWAYS gives you a SECOND CHANCE to find what might have been missed.....

Bill