Help with the value of a gold ring

[Tony Two-Cent]

A friend has asked me if I can find out anything about the value of this ring. (Not a metal detecting find.)

The ring is gold but the markings on the inside have worn off. The initials are B of L F & E which stands for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen. My friend thinks it is from the 1909-1930 era.

I found a couple of similar rings online but none exactly like this one.

Does anyone know of a resource that could help with the value of this ring?

 

[freemindstuck]

The ring may have value on the vintage market or be rare and have extra value. I can't really tell you since I'm not an expert on vintage or rare jewellry. But a good place to start in terms of valuing it, would be to determine purity by doing a scratch test. You can buy one off of Amazon for like 10 bucks.
http://www.amazon.com/Precious-Meta...qid=1397149235&sr=8-1&keywords=metal+test+kit

 

[del]

the two I've seen for sale on ebay were actually gold plated with enameling Tony , are you sure its solid gold ??

 

[Tony Two-Cent]

the two I've seen for sale on ebay were actually gold plated with enameling Tony , are you sure its solid gold ??

No, I'm not sure that it's solid gold. I've never actually seen the ring in person, only these photos. I had also seen the two plated ones on eBay. This ring looks older to me but perhaps it is plated too, I'm not sure.

 

[Full Metal Digger]

Doesn't look plated to me. Looks like old gold--perhaps 10K? I looked all over the internet and could not find a comparable ring. Perhaps it is a custom--one off ring?

 

[coinnut]

Maybe something in between like gold filled. I think I remember a term called gold clad which sounds like a way to not have much gold in it at all :lol: Best advice is to have the ring tested for gold content. Then you can actually get a value for it. If it turns out to not be gold, you won't have to worry about a price for it