33 Diamonds

I thought it was pink cubic zirconia on a plated ring too but I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news.

Its pretty rare to find diamonds in anything not gold or platinum (occassionally I had seen diamonds in silver as handmade peices for people who display very allergic reactions with impure metals)

Diamonds can be coloured but of course naturally occuring coloured diamonds are big money. Cubics are cheap and hard to distinguish the difference if not used to looking at them. With white stones the eye can detect the splitting effect a cubic has, you detect a spectrum in it that you don't see with a diamond and the absense of any inclusions under magnification is also a give away. A diamond tester measures the refractive properties of stones by firing in a laser which can easily sort out CZ from Diamond.

Of course there is moissanite around too these days, its still expensive but half the cost of diamonds...it can test as diamond but has double refraction where a diamond has single refraction.

As a response to Broseph there are many different values that can be attatched to a piece of jewellery. Insurance valuation is always a generous amount of what it would cost to replace, retail value, trade value, melt value etc etc

You can buy CZ's for pennies so any jeweller disregards their presence in a valuation, a ring like this weights a couple of grams of silver and is only worth the scrap value. However if pollished back to bare silver or replated I am sure it would be restored to its former level of attractiveness.

It's a very intricate design for someone to fashion that from sterling.
Could be low quality pink tourmaline or high quality Rose Quartz.

Being a CZ piece, 99% of the value is tied up in the labour costs in it's manufacture.

Just curious, how deep was it?

It was shallow enough that I could pinpoint it with my in-line probe, so, about 1" deep.
Right before I dug this ring, a previous signal on the turf turned out to be a 925 sterling band. I also pinpointed that ring easily, as it was just under the grass.

Yes--it would be for lost-wax or soldering, but I'm guessing it's mass-produced, as most settings are...in that faraway land where most of our retail stuff is made.

Not a bad idea to try the UV light. Pink CZ will look whitish-blue. Kunzite and pink sapphire will glow a bright red. Bright blue fluorescence is often seen on diamonds.

I refer to rings like that as my half second heart attacks.

That's how long it takes me to go from WOOO HOOO to damn, it's fake...


Better luck next time!