My find for the day - And I don't even know where it came from

I got several jewelry lots this week. On Saturday, I was sorting through a junk jewelry lot and an earring lot. I looked down and saw this ring on the floor; it must have slipped out of one of the lots. I almost threw it back into the junk jewelry pile, but I decided to loupe it first.

Sure enough it's marked 18k with a left facing full lion (can't tell though if he's standing or laying down" and the letter "B".

I have no idea where it came from. The junk jewelry lot didn't have a shred of gold or silver, so I think the seller was pretty thorough on checking things out.

Any thoughts on where it's from? I'm usually fairly good at researching costume jewelry marks, but European marks give me agida.

 

Birks....?

 

Do I sense some hesitation? LOL.

Going to look up Birks right now.

 

I'm used to Birks sterling items.....I've had little exposure to their gold....

 

I was thinking of European because of the lion.

Looking at the European marks briefly, I'd like to know just what is up with all these lion marks - standing, laying, left facing, right facing, one paw up, all paws down. Are there no other species they could have used?

 

I'm just kidding you a bit, Tie.dye.cat . . . but you seem to have left out a few "(future???) possibilities" for the lion mark(s) -- tail over back, tail to left, tail to right, tail between legs, ears and/or tail cropped by a hyena . . . .

 

Doing the cha cha, standing on his head.....

ROFL.

 

They used Leopards too !!!!!

 

The big clue that it's not European is the use of the letter K to denote caratage.

 

Have you tested it to see if it is genuine?

 

Not yet but I will today.

The stamping is a bit loppy, so I wondered that myself.

 

Ugh, so sorry for anyone that looked for this mark for me! It does not test as 18k.

It should have been the first thing that I did, but usually the fakes I get are just stamped with the metal purity, no maker's mark or assay mark, so I thought it might be the real deal.

I knew that Europe marks their gold "c" for carat, but I thought I had read somewhere that some countries use a "k".

Again, so sorry if anyone took time to look for it. :wanders off to kick myself: