Rings and Things

[LoftyLottie]

All this talk about engagement rings has made me think about this again.

I seem to have quite a lot of rings which have been passed down through the family. Combined they must be worth quite a lot and I am considering selling them as I am simply not a jewelry person. I feel in a quandary about this because they were given to me by my mother (and she never wore them either). I have noone who would want them so I think the money might be more useful than rings that never see the light of day and would probably end up being sold anyway when I depart.

I am not all hard and uncaring - I do wear my mother's wedding ring on my little finger (but I lost my own over 25 years ago and haven't replaced it!!).

What would you do?

[dotty.]

Take them to a proper jewellers to have them assessed with a view to selling them as jewellery not scrap gold

[LoftyLottie]

Oh yes, I would do that Dotty. I also have an 18 carat gold watch chain that was my great grandfathers. My Dad had it made into a bracelet for my Mum but she didn't wear it. I would probably sell that for the gold value. I did an online calculation and it's worth about £800 in gold. I think that has to go!

[mazie]

Hi Lottie. I'm not a jewellery person at all. I dont think your son will be interested in them and you're not, so I see no point in keeping them. I'd sell them but I wouldn't know where to go to get a fair price though.


I also lost my first wedding ring (somewhere in the garden!)

[mccfluff]

i'd was going to post as dotty said, my mum has loads of jewellry that she doesn't wear and i won't wear it, there are a few pieces i want for sentimental reasons but the rest she is getting apprasied

[DTCwordfan]

my old man found his wedding ring 8 years after it went missing in the garden , raking the drive one day.....

[LoftyLottie]

I threw mine at Mr LL in the garden and never did find it. Oh dear, I am not as fiery these days, Maizie!!

My son's partner isn't a jewellery. I have asked her if she would like them but she says she wouldn't wear them which is honest and fair enough.

[LoftyLottie]

Ooooh DT, perhaps my ring will turn up. Mind you 25 years is a long time it is probably buried very deep!!

[MickyMacgraw]

Gold prices are at an all time high so wouldn't it be better to sell the gold as scrap and take out the precious stones and sell them separately?

[Robinia]

oh send them to me Lottie, I can wear them as bracelets :o)
I've only got one ring of any value, a diamond trilogy that was my mums. I love it and wear it often (but not when I'm gardening).

If you've really no one to pass them on to why not sell them & buy something you do like & can pass on...a painting maybe?

[LoftyLottie]

I don't thinks so Micky. Not with rings. Their value is probably in the design of the rings themselves and the unique settings of the gems. They are not huge gems! The watch chain is definitely going for the gold value!!

[boxtops]

We have a local jeweller who buys in second hand jewellery, you might have the same - if not, you could try selling it on eBay (good time of year at the moment, people are buying for Christmas!) but it's worth spending a few bob getting them valued, just in case any of them turn out to be worth more than you realise. The only caveat is that if something is value at say £600 for replacement price, you're only likely to sell it to wear for about a third of the price (this happened to me with some diamond earrings). Scrap value may be a better bet - your jeweller should advise.

[LoftyLottie]

Robinia, that is such a good idea. I could hang the painting too and see it during my lifetime and it would make me feel that it was down to the family that I could buy it. I will definitely think hard about that. Son and partner are fond of art, so they would inherit something they really liked.

I will always have my mother's wedding ring - it will go wherever I end up!!

[jno]

do check with your current descendants that they wouldn't want them, if not as rings then as keepsakes. In another century or two someone may be fascinated to inherit a ring that belonged to a great great greeat great grandmother (I would be, anyway).

[LoftyLottie]

Most of them would make rather nice engagement rings!! I could have offered them to William for Kate.

I have a gold ring that I wear when I go out which is actually a man's ring (my grandad's) a ring Mr LL bought me two years ago which is a white and red gold lovers knot(!!) and a silver ring with a jet stone. These are the only rings I ever wear and they all have sentimental value

[LoftyLottie]

I only have one descendent jno and have asked his partner. Robinia's idea of a paining that he can inherit has really interested me. There are other family treasures that he will inherit that I know he would love to own, including some 'etchings' that were given to my great grandfather in payment for a debt.

[jno]

an etching would be good

http://anglogermanhis.../images/9BankNote.jpg

[China Doll]

I love pretty rings. I actually very rarely wear jewelry but I do have a few bits and bobs that I really love. I'm pretty chuffed as just got my old jewel box out of storage and am once again reacquainted with my (uncut) ruby and jade bracelet that i absolutely adore, I used to have a ring that went with it but that appears to be sadly lost in one of my moves... I'm looking forward to wearing the bracelet again though :c)

[ethandron]

when my mum died, my sister and i had her 3 stone diamond engagement ring, and her mother's (our grandmother) 2 stone diamond engagement ring, made into two pairs of diamond stud earings, and one singel stone on a fine gold chain.
like you lottie, i never got engaged, didn't see the point at all, just started saving up and got married when we had enough for a deposit on a house. the first christmas after we were married, i was presented with a lovely simple diamond ring, which i wear as an engagement ring next to my wedding ring.
i too have a number of rings just shoved in my jewellery box, inherited from various family members, also the skeletons of the two engagement rings which had the diamonds removed. the older i get, the less sentimental i'm becoming about all this stuff and i feel at some point i'll probably do what you're contemplating lottie, and sell it.
i have a gold 'pipe' necklace and matching slave bangle (i think that's what it's called). those two items, and a load of cheap and cheerful earings and necklaces picked up here, there and everywhere (mainly on holiday) are the only jewellery i like wearing.
sell it lottie, and enjoy doing something nice with the money :o)

[smudge]

I agree with most of the others Lottie & sell whatever jewellery you know no one else would like, or want to be left. It seems such a waste just sitting there, when you could buy something else of your liking wih the money.

I would do the same, but having two daughers & three granddaughters, I'm sure they'd find something in my j.box that they'd like to keep. I don't mind what they do with it when I'm gorn!

My husband still has his Dad's gold/diamond wedding ring, but it's still in the box it was left to him in. It hasn't seen daylight since 1966 when he sadly passed away.

[paddywak]

When my mum died 25yrs ago her jewellerybox contained quiet a lot of stuff, rings necklaces etc none of it was of any great value and I remember the eight grandchildren sitting round the table after the funeral passing the box round and taking turns picking something. To this day i'll often recognise a piece one of the kids (or their kids) is wearing as having belonged to mum. It's not the value that matters, as tracy one of the girls said it's having something that was her nanna's