Hallmark help. 14K with a star. ?

[Florida Keys Pirate]

Found a 6.0 gram 14k ring buried 4" down , under an oak tree next to an old church. It looks old to me. ( can't figure out resizing pics on iPad yet ) Stone looks like worn out glass. The hallmark says 14K * only it appears to be a star , not an asterisk. Any ideas ?

Thanks

 

[Ism]

If it is indeed 14k and not GF or GP, the stone might be an uncut diamond or other gemstone.
Its unusual for glass to be set in gold rings. A picture would help.

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

The " stone " top is chipped and worn. Looks like old glass to me. But the ring looks like real gold. I filed into the band. It still looks real. I'm doing an acid test in a few days. Was just curious if anybody has seen a star hallmark before. This is the best pic I could get of the markings.

 

[Ism]

Yep, looks like solid 14k to me. Ring design/quality is right there.
That looks like a raw (uncut) gemstone. Don't know about the hallmark though.

 

[RustyNTX]

n/t

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

I got an email back from a company that wrote a book about hallmarks. The said its a makers mark , not a hallmark. And I would need to contact someone who specializes in maker's marks. Hmmm , I always thought those two meant the same thing. Guess not. Those pics are the best I can do after I resize them down to work on the forum. Just looks like a single star after the 14K stamp. As for the stone , it's not uncut. The bottom of the stone has finished cut edges like you would expect to see. But the top is chipped and has a sandblasted look. Which makes me think it's just glass. Still waiting on my gold acid tester kit , and stone tester to arrive .

 

[1859large]

That stone looks like opal to me. It is essentially silica and is slightly softer than quartz.

Marked 14k and looking like gold probably means it is 14k gold. A modern style mount. Worth at least its gold weight.

What will you do with the gold kit?

Nice find.

HH

 

[Ant]

I always though the makers/goldsmith mark is like a signature, sometimes they use their initials or whatever, and I thought that the manufactures mark was different, and then we have the hallmark

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

The gold kit just confirms it's really 14K gold. I'll use it for future finds. As for the makers mark . I can't believe I can't find anything about it on the net.

 

[Ant]

Then look up jewelers marks on rings, or list of jewelers list of marks.

 

[Ant]

This stuff is not a secrete, lol:

http://www.jewelry-secrets.com/Jewelry/Marks-Stamped-Inside-Rings/What-Do-The-Marks-Stamped-Inside-Your-Ring-Mean.html

Jeweler's Stamps
A common stamp that you'll see inside rings are Jeweler's Stamps so you can tell where you bought the ring from. Like "JBR" inside the shank would stand for J.B. Robinson Jewelers, "Pgda" stands for the Piercing Pagoda, Helzberg Diamonds will stamp "Helzberg Diamonds" right inside their rings.

Sometimes these Jewelers will abbreviate their store's names or even use a logo. Every Jeweler is different and uses different markings.


Manufacturer's Stamps
Just like the Jewelers, often you'll see the Manufacturer stamped inside the band of the ring. For example ArtCarved will stamp their rings "ArtCarved" so they know it's their ring and it also helps brand their company, product and image. Take Tiffany for example, they stamp their rings "T & CO".

Manufacturer Stamps can be very useful if you need to find out who made a ring so you could contact them for questions, concerns or even ordering!


Designer
There are a lot of great Jewelry Designer's out there that put their name right inside their rings. A great designer's name can carry a lot of weight. A huge Designer that most people know would be David Yurman which is stamped

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

I've searched for everything I can think of. I found a raised up star ( nice clear edges ) , mine is stamped in and not as sharp looking. The only other one has a Russian hammer and sickle inside of it. No biggie , was just curious as to the age really. The gold tests good for 14K , so I'm happy !

 

[Ant]

I have a friend that works in silver but he also works in gold but it is too expensive. His shop is in a trailer that is located in his back yard. He can make any kind of mark inside of a ring using the lost wax process. We have backyard jewelers in every city.

 

[giuhalftrack]

in europe is common:

gold title (es. 14K); STAR: productor code.

something like this:
750*100VF

 

[Florida Keys Pirate]

Thanks Halftrack.

 

[bulletproofkc]

Hopefully someone can tell me what this Hallmark is

 

[bulletproofkc]

Looking to know what this stamp is next to the 14k