Vintage 1980s and 70s precious metals class rings.

Yeah, they sell them, they don't make them. LOL. and if it's more than 10 years, it's also likely they don't have anyone around that sells them that would know about the older stuff, just like everywhere else really.

 

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wow, look at all the "metals" they make the rings in now
JOSTENS ==> https://www.jostens.com/resources/students-and-parents/jewelry-guides/high-school-class-ring-metals

I can't find a list like that for Balfour but they have info in their Q&A section (Imperium, Celestrium, etc) ==> https://www.balfour.com/HelpCenter/FAQ/Rings

 

I don't know about the rings but Balfour makes or sells .999 silver rounds.

 

Thanks for your help.
Thats all we can find online like i wish i could find anything about the rings from the 1970s and 80s and 90s tho.
There has to be an old class ring pamphlet oe catalog that would have more info about the metals but i sure cant find them if there is smh.

 

I mean someone has to of melted thease down or used the x ray gun or something to no more hmm.
I guess ill have to make it to a jewler and see if they can use there metal gun on them thats all i can think of.

Thanks for all your help and lmk if u find anything more out ok.

 

Thanks for your reply you no more then most.

I got even more rings now i have palladium plus polara plus quasar plus and bps and q pal and auralite and keystone sp and elt and fee more.
I acid test them and they all do come up for palladium and some gold just i have no clue of the composition still.

I really need to go get them tested with the gun allready thats only thing i can do i guess.

 

Yeah. That's about it really. Like I said these metals with fancy names are all alloys that are patented or trademarked and the exact composition is secret.
You might try to look online for a class ring collector forum, I don't think you are alone out there, maybe someone has done a lot more research on the alloys used and you can get better clarity.

Getting them tested would be the sure way to know but not sure on the cost to have an analysis done, if it'd be worth doing it.

 

Well i called Balfour and jostens and Balfour finally let me talk to one of there ring makers or jewlers.
He confirmed all my rings were made with solid palladium in the 70s and 80s into the mid 90s then they stoped using alot of palladium in mid 90s.
He said he never made any from back then but from what he can tell palladium plus had the most palladium with 75 to 95% pure palladium.
Then precium and astriumn and q pal and quasar plus n polara plus all had 25% to 75% pure palladium in them.
He said they were not really good with micing and casting the metals back then so you could have one astrium ring with 75% pure palladium in it then test another astrium ring and that one only have 24% pure palladium in it thats how bad they were at mixing the metals lol.

So anyways if you find thease rings they are treasure now and worth good good money with there palladium content and cool looks from the ring.

O yeah the guy told me congratulations on all the palladium rings i collected he said he never gets to see those old rings anymore there basically a lost art he said.

 

Glad that you got an update and some clarity on what you have. You'd still need testing to find out true values I think either that or melt them down to extract the metals used one by one and figure it out. Not an easy task and left with base metals and no longer a ring at the end. There's no other real way to gauge exact compositions of the mixes.

Paladium was cheap until about 1990 when they figured out a bunch more uses for it.
Not surprising they stopped using it when the price started rising.

Congrats!

 

Did you ever find out if Palladium Plus (in my case P+) actually contained more than the others?

 

Palladium Plus is used as a dental alloy. It's mainly cobalt 66%, plus chromium 27% and molybdenum 5%
So that only leaves 2% for the palladium.

that's not the same as what's used for class rings though I see it can be up to 20% when they have been assayed. and that's the thing, all of these ring alloys are trademarked names and proprietary information on what the exactl composition of the alloy is, without assay of the alloy there's really no way to tell how much precious metal is in them.

I'd check around locally for an alloy assayer and see what they charge to test, then you'd know for sure what is the precious metal content. if it's 20% certainly you wouldn't want the confusion of the dental alloy with a refiner and them giving you the 2% price for it, then taking it for assay later on to find they made some money off you.

 

I think it’s a different mixture as well, I did have some Quasar Plus rings that came up on the XRF around 27-30% but spot for them was low because my guy definitely doesn’t refine it. Was hopeful this one was 70-75% like I read somewhere else, but I don’t want to get it melted down just to find out the content based on the Quasar Plus/your response.

 

just saying, refiners generally have the assaying capability, assayers generally are refiners, and there are refiners around, the "we buy" guys are just middle men, and yeah, they won't pay what a refiner/assayer will pay and come in much lower if they are to buy it so they can make their edge on it,, and if they have to guess the content, they seriously lowball. XRF is close, but it's not assaying accuracy. XRF is off by like .2% compared to assay testing.
As long as you are sure it's not plated thickly, XRF should get you a close approximation of what it would assay at if you have cheap access to XRF.
XRF should tell you the answer to what you are looking for pretty close without any damage.

 

It has been my experience that no matter what precious metal a ring has, I have always been disappointed in the scrap value.
In my opinion, these are worth above the metal content in collectible value.
Just describe them as best you can and ask at least double or triple the PM content and sell them yourself.
Obviously they are not junk.
They will sell.
I think they are very nice. Unless you need money badly, why not just collect more or just keep them?
Look up current day class ring prices and I'm sure yours are much better than many.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...H_TitleDesc=0&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1&_sop=16

 

To be honest I’m just really curious, I had them for a bit and it was bugging me not knowing the content of them. Held on to the little silver/pal button I got from it for a while, but prices were dipping and I needed some money. I got my answer for Quasar, but then started wondering about Pal Plus lol.

Always been interested in PGMs though, really fascinating metals

 

Hello.
So apparently they were not good at mixing there metals and they casted there class rings.
So one ring vould have more palladium in it then the next i was told.
Just depends on the ring you have.
But polara plus and quasar plus and palladium plus all are suposed to have 14k palladium.
Then i herd some would be 800 palladium pd so who knows.
So basically 58% pure palladium should be in those class rings but im not positive because no one in my town owns the xrf gun and tried every pawn shop and jewlery store for miles its really ridiculous.
P+ will also be like palladium plus or polara plus ok.
Even jostens ring maker i twlk to has no clue how much palladium but he fid say those class rings i mentioned wil have more palladium in them then other.
He said its a lost art and he would have to get in touch with the old guys that used to work there to find the real compositions.
I e been trying for 5yrs now to figure out how much palladium is in thease rings.
I have hundreds of them lol.

 

Yeah ive been yrying for 5yrs now to figure this out but no one in my whole city has the xrf gun for some reason.
I tried every pawn shop and jewlery store like how and why none of them have the xrf gun idk but its ridiculous.
Ill find out soon tho and lrt you guys no because i have hundreds of thease class rings with palladium in them.

 

Hello.
Yeah i callwd jostens Balfour and more companys and they definitely used solid palladium in thease class rings just for some reason they say its a lost art and no one knows that works there what the compilations are some how.
Also i called and went to every pawn store and jewlery store within miles of were i live and some how none of them own the xrf gun its absolutely ridiculous that many stores doesn't have one like i cant even believe it.

 

Hello.

Well what you said is 100% not true at all.
There is alot more then 2% palladium in thease class rings i no that 100% fact.

I called jostens and Balfour the companys that make thease class rings and he said he knows for a fact that there class rings have few grams or more in certin ones 100% he said because they started using the palladium back then because it was so cheap in the 60s 70s and 80s and they wanted to be able to still sell some class rings as precious metals since they couldn't afford all the gold ones they kept selling after gold went up in price.
I no for fact some have 25% pure palladium in them because my cuzzin in California had a class ring tested for me since he had access to the xrf gun and the ring came back 26% pd on the gun.
And i believe that was for the precium or astrium class ring was the one he had.
So yes palladium plus has way more then 2% palladium for 100% fact of life.
Take care.