revvassago
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posted on May 27, 2002 11:52:46 AM new
I recently purchased a ring at an auction. When first looking at it, I thought it was some sort of Boy Scout ring:
But my wife thought it might be something else, because of what is on the front:
Also, I don't know what the stamp means on the inside:
The ring appears to be gold or brass, and the horse appears to be silver or tin.
Any help would be appreciated.
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pelorus
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posted on May 27, 2002 01:33:53 PM new
I believe the figure is not a horse. It is a jackalope.
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toolhound
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posted on May 27, 2002 04:12:58 PM new
That is not a Boy Scouts emblem it is a common design in jewelery.
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Libra63
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posted on May 27, 2002 05:25:17 PM new
With the name mexico on the ring something is silver. The design that you see on the side is a fleu-de-leur (spelling) It is just a design to take up space. The top looks brass, is the ring silver? Is 925 stamped anyplace on the inside of the ring?
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revvassago
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posted on May 27, 2002 05:34:39 PM new
Nope, no 925 on the inside. How long have they been stamping silver 925?
I didn't even realize that it said MEXICO on the inside - I thought it was some sort of Roman Numerals.....
It appears that the top MIGHT be silver with some sort of coating to make it look like brass. Some of it is wearing away, and I can see a siver color underneath.
The ring is very large, and VERY heavy.
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Libra63
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posted on May 27, 2002 08:48:21 PM new
I don't know how long they have been stamping 925 but I do know that there are a lot of designers in Mexico that still don't stamp 925. In the US they have to stamp it but I don't know in Mexico. It is an interesting ring.
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stopwhining
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posted on May 28, 2002 07:04:31 AM new
then there are some southeast asian makers who stamp thier silver items as 925 and yet they are not 925.
one jeweler found out the hard way when he was caught at us customs and the customs folks tested and told him so.
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bidsbids
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posted on May 28, 2002 09:26:54 AM new
Most jewelry ( and most other items ) made in Mexico years ago were of low quality and you can see it almost instantly when you see a poorly made piece of jewelry before you find the "Mexico" stamp on it.
This ring looks to be very old and has some promise of being valuable. The French national emblem of the Fleur-de-Lis ( lily plant ) coupled with the French occupation of Mexico means this ring may be very old and have a very good value.
One of the great things about eBay is that the marketplace determines value and there are a lot of knowledgable buyers that will decide the true value of any item. If the seller got the ring for $40 for instance then there isn't too much harm do with running an eBay auction with a $50 start bid on the ring. If it attracts no bids the seller is out less than a dollar but if the item goes for $250 he is way ahead of the game. There once were many coin and jewelry auctions on eBay that said something like "I do not know much about the value of this item and will let the eBay marketplace determine its value".
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SkorpioGal
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posted on May 28, 2002 01:35:00 PM new
I just wanted to give you a little information about the ring.
It's made of brass, not silver. Mexican silver from before 1948 was marked "Silver Mexico" (often with a maker's mark as well), between 1948 and 1979 with an eagle-design assay mark with a number in it to designate the maker, and from 1979 on had a variant of the assay mark using a hyphen and a combination of letters and numbers.
This piece, however, is a common and inexpensive piece made for tourists. I've seen variants of it with touches of "enamelling" on the horse, and various designs of plaques on the sides and on the top.
It dates from probably the 1950s, or later.
---Skorpio
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classicrock000
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posted on May 29, 2002 03:54:46 AM new
its Elvis's engangement ring to Priscilla
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