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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 245928, member: 2844&quot;]Managed to buy these rare antique Dagestan (Caucasus) rings for even less than a song. They are high grade silver, fineness higher than sterling, with Byzantine style enamel and facet cut stones.</p><p>When I bought them online I thought the stones were glass. But once the rings arrived I saw no bubbles, so I decided to test them. They have a hardness of 8 on the Mohs scale.</p><p>I think they could be spinels, because I can&#039;t think of anything else of that hardness and colour. They have no pleochroism, which rules out topaz, I think.</p><p>Dagestan is in the Caucasus region of Russia, and home to many ethnicities. It is on the Caspian sea, so there has always been trade with Iran and Central Asia. Russia is a country with a lot of gemstones, spinels and many others.</p><p>The detailed photos are of the stone with the most damage, so you can see the way it fractures. The white on the chips is just in the photos, not in real life.</p><p>The rings are closed at the back of the stones.</p><p>What do you think?</p><p>Thanks for looking.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]75604[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]75605[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]75606[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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