Antique gold pin from estate sale - ruby or garnet?

A lot of good jewelry stores have them around, if they take estate consignments. Pawn shops generally only have diamond testers; they don't care much about the other stones. If you're going to be dealing with a lot of jewelry it might be worth investing. Most of what I handle is costume or sterling, and no one puts stones worth testing in sterling most of the time.

 

I beg to differ, I have gotten sterling pieces with sapphires, garnets, rubies, topaz. I have also gotten gold pieces with glass stones - you just never know!

 

I got 20K or so with a plastic stone in it once. The seller thought it was junk for just that reason and threw it in a scrap bag. I was going to toss it myself but saw funny marks on the bail. Most of the time the stones in sterling are semi-precious, but you never know. This also doesn't apply to antique pieces. Georgian jewelers used sterling with diamonds a lot.

 

Hi,
I have an Art Deco 18KT gold ring with a "plastic" ruby in it. You can never tell by the settings. I remember on the AR where a guy paid 6 dollars for a rhinestone necklace in a cheap setting and it turned out it was 126 kts of diamonds.
greg

 

Wear it!(LOL) You can always sell it as a gold pin with a glass stone.