educate me on antique rings, please

[grasswire]

I have an old ring that appears to be some sort of a memorial item. Engraved inside with a woman's name, date of her death 1855. No karat mark, although it seems to be gold. No one in the family can finhd out who this person is; not on ancestry or google.

My question is this: were there instances where gold jewelry was not stamped with karat? I tried a magnet on it; it does not react to magnet.

[safeinOhio]

1. Lots of old stuff was not marked

many old hat pins are 14k with no stamp. About the only way to check is take it to a jeweler or pick up a test kit. If heavy for the size and no tarnish, it most likely is gold.

[Vinca]

2. I bought a test kit off ebay and have used it many times.

It's very easy and you can test for different grades of gold plus sterling silver and platinum. They're inexpensive, too.

[TeamPooka]

3. If it is gold then that's what it's worth. If it not then it may still be seen as atracttive to

collectors based on it's visual style.
Many people are collecting old "family" heirlooms.
Not originally from their family but then they assimilate it to give a sense of history to a family that has forgotten theirs.
You know, hipsters.

[KMA2U2]

4. Old Ring

You may want to take it to a pawn shop. They will test it for you to let you know whether it is gold or not. Chances are you may be able to find out who the woman is and contact her relatives to see if they are missing the ring. To have something engraved back in 1855 was somewhat of a chore with the tools available at the time. Only the affluent would have had that done. I certainly hope it's not something that was supposed to be buried with the recipient. That would be horrible. Let's not think about that. If you want to get into the jewelry side of antiquing, you may want to invest in an acid kit. It comes with a stone and different acids to test the items with. It would be worth your while if you run across jewelry all the time. If not then just take your items to a reputable pawn shop and they will test it for you. Make sure you know the people you are dealing with because you want to be able to trust the person who tells you whether or not you have a pricey item in your hands or not. Be careful. There are more crooks out there today. Also, getting closer to the holidays the crooks are coming out of the woodwork to bilk people out of their hard earned money.
Thanks grasswire.

[grasswire]

5. I have tried to research the name.

Because the ring was in with some old family things that just came to light in my cousin's old trunk of her mother's, I suspect it was someone that a member of my family long ago knew long ago. But I have no idea who. And it's common enough name to make it really hard to find a trail. Not a member of our direct family lines that we can tell.