Vintage 1980s and 70s precious metals class rings.

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No, duh, it makes you vintage.

 

I think these ones are mostly Bean Counter / Marketing driven metallurgy.

 

ask a Mod to correct it ...

 

I dunno. Germanium isn't easy to come by; it's around twice as expensive as silver, but in much shorter supply.

 

Try Glass/Ceramics. I actually get to say things like Molybdenum Disilicide on a regular basis and people don't laugh

 

In 30 years you'll understand. Lol

 

The op already answered. Lol

 

Yeah but we're talking the 1970s and 1980s here.
Wasn't it a byproduct of zinc (blame the 1982 cents) and coal processing. Which Coal by itself is much less used today in the US than back then. Which was still 3-4x more expensive than silver, but probably tarnishes less easily which was critical for rings with all those intricate details and Customer Satisfaction.

but then, truthfully, it was a long time ago ... so ... it is what it is/was.



https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2012/5188/sir2012-5188.pdf
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/...-pubs/historical-statistics/germanium-use.pdf



and as @lordmarcovan mentioned .... it should be easy to come by and grow if need be ==> https://www.almanac.com/plant/geraniums#:~:text=Place plants in pots with,4-6 hours of sunlight.

 

Thanks buddy. Lol

 

Okay, here's a question no one has asked, "Why do you want to know?" Are you planning on melting them down? Do thease (sic) rings have stones? Are they possibly worth more than the metal?

 

I think the OP's question is mostly trying to put a value on em now that's he's started a collection of them. trying to figure out what they are made of, maybe take them on the antiques roadshow and look like an expert and prove those suckers wrong about something for once on TV!

 

Well, given that palladium goes for about 100 times the price of silver, I'd be quite keen to know whether rings contained it. Especially if I were looking to sell them.

 

In the late 1960s, Josten's was the go-to class ring manufacturer - their rings were 10K gold (41.7%) - the prices were reasonable, but gold spot price was around $40.
Today, they sell for around $100+ on eBay, because the 10K alloy is not highly desired and the synthetic stones have little value.

 

Yes you are correct.
Like anyone that collects or has a passion for something usually wants to learn as much as they can about what it is right.

 

Thank you that prob is the best answer here.

 

Thats like saying who cares about the coins you collect and the dated and metals used and errors like what a dumb question.
And your old deal with it it happens to all of us in time.

 

Great info thank you very much...yes ive been in contact woth belfour and jostens and they are so clueless its funny...so there having there ring makers contact me finally lol.