Is this ring gold?

[lamarkeiko]

My son and daughter in law recently purchased a Victorian home near me that was built in 1900 and they invited me to try metal detecting in their yard. A couple days ago I spent about 1 1/2 hr searching their front yard and found a few interesting items including a 45-70 shell case a Chinese coin and a ring about 6" deep in the ground.. I didn't think the ring would be anything of real value because it was all blackish color after washing the dirt off. It was a sort of crusty layer on the outside. It was non magnetic and the vid number on my Equinox was 22-23. I thought it may be silver. I never thought at all it would be gold because I was at the belief that gold would not tarnish or corrode. I did some scraping and polishing on the outside and got a nice gold/brass color. I then thought it may be made of brass. I weighed it and it comes in at 31.6 grains/2 grams. I then took an Exacto knife and scraped some of the crust off the inside which exposed a stamp that looks like 18. Could this mean that it may be 18K gold? I did some google searching and found that 18K jewelry can corrode because of the copper and silver alloys it was mixed with.
I've never found gold in the dirt before, so I don't know what to expect.

 

[Mark kus]

Nice find! I could be or could be GF gold filled looks good though bring it to a coin store or pawn shop and they will test it for you..
Don't sell to a pawn shop..
Mark

 

[fwcrawford]

Hard to say, but for the size, it seems too light to be gold in my opinion.
I have found several to rings in dirt and even though they are only 14 karat, there was zero tarnish or corrosion on them.
Even 10 karat gold found in the water does not tarnish or corrode.
BTW... that Chinese coin is in great shape!!
Was it deep?

 

[407floyd]

I think it depends on your soil type. I've found many gold and silver pieces that don't corrode, but have a mineral crust built up on the exterior. Gold is always a dark material and silver seems to be a light material. I can meticulously chip away to expose gold, but silver sometimes won't let go even with electrolysis. Wartime nickels always have a black crust, too. I think yours is 18k gold.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

a reading of 22-23 for gold is high and not likely but it is possible... i have never found any gold higher than 10k that showed any sign of tarnish ever.. I’ve seen pics of green 14k that has spent 50+ years in saltwater .. personalply I don’t believe it’s gold however visually and that 18 marking sure leave some room for hope..

 

[MikeO]

I have no idea but, it is a nice find.