EBay, Collectors, Flea Market & Antiques

You may want to take it to a pawn shop. They will test it for you to let you know whether it is gold or not. Chances are you may be able to find out who the woman is and contact her relatives to see if they are missing the ring. To have something engraved back in 1855 was somewhat of a chore with the tools available at the time. Only the affluent would have had that done. I certainly hope it's not something that was supposed to be buried with the recipient. That would be horrible. Let's not think about that. If you want to get into the jewelry side of antiquing, you may want to invest in an acid kit. It comes with a stone and different acids to test the items with. It would be worth your while if you run across jewelry all the time. If not then just take your items to a reputable pawn shop and they will test it for you. Make sure you know the people you are dealing with because you want to be able to trust the person who tells you whether or not you have a pricey item in your hands or not. Be careful. There are more crooks out there today. Also, getting closer to the holidays the crooks are coming out of the woodwork to bilk people out of their hard earned money.
Thanks grasswire.