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Masonic ring symbol

Leyther1

Posted: 17 November 2011 02:13 PM

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Good evening
I am looking for info on a masonic ring that belongs to my friend. It was her Great Grandfahers. On the inner of the ring is a white metal / silver diamond shape…do you know what this mans and why would it be on the inside? Other than that, it is all plain 9ct gold with the rule and compass sign (no G). There are also three initials on the inner band, LM&G or LW&G, cannot qite tell. Any ideas what the letters could mean also?

thank you
Leyther 1

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ptk1071

Posted: 17 November 2011 03:17 PM

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I believe the L W & G is a British Hallmark or Maker’s mark. The stamp is too small to identify in the pic you posted, at least by me.

Here is a British Hallmarking guide and maybe you can find the mark in there.
http://bis.gov.uk/assets/bispartners/britishhallmarkingcouncil/docs/hallmark-guidance-notes-final.pdf

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Leyther1

Posted: 17 November 2011 03:31 PM

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Thank you for this - I shall do some digging….I will try to enlarge it so you can see it better. I also have a photo of the ring that I am trying to upload - to see if it can maybe identify its age?

thank you

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Leyther1

Posted: 17 November 2011 03:34 PM

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sadly I cannot add a new picture - it just throws me out of the site with an error message : (

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Mike Martin

Posted: 17 November 2011 05:51 PM

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Open yourself a photobucket account at http://www.photobucket.com then you can load the images there and give us a link to look at them.

PS the initials do sound like the makers mark. Are there any actual hallmarks? ie if it is from the UK it will have either 9Ct or .375 to signify that it is actually gold.

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Leyther1

Posted: 18 November 2011 03:55 AM

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hello
I shall have a go at opening the account to upload the photos - all it says on the ring inside is “LW & G 9 375 O” there is a symbol also so my friend will look at it over the weekend when she can find a magnifying glass.

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Leyther1

Posted: 18 November 2011 04:12 AM

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I have set up an account but now reduced the size so have uploaded the picture of the rig that she gave me

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Mike Martin

Posted: 18 November 2011 07:29 AM

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Leyther1 - 18 November 2011 03:55 AM
all it says on the ring inside is “LW & G 9 375 O” there is a symbol also so my friend will look at it over the weekend when she can find a magnifying glass.

OK so that is telling you that the maker was a company or jeweller whose mark is LW&G and that it is made of 9ct gold. The “O” is the year of manufacture and needs to be compared to the listings as it depends which assay office it is under and which combination of letter font and background shape is used to determine the year.

My guess (without seeing the “diamond shape”) would be that the shape is a cheap repair but I could probably tell you more if I could see it.

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Leyther1

Posted: 18 November 2011 07:47 AM

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Thanks Mike

I shall try to get a closer zoom of the diamond / star shape inside and will see how I go about finding out the year “O”. I have determined LW&G was made in London Town which would fit the story ...
I’ll be back

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Leyther1

Posted: 18 November 2011 07:53 AM

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does this work a bit better for you to see?

Sorr despite zooming in on the star reducing the pic to even 10KB it just will not accept on the site : (

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Mike Martin

Posted: 19 November 2011 06:20 AM

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As I said don’t worry about getting it into the Forum, just load it onto a (free) photobucket account and you’ll be able to do this: http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd117/MikeM200Sx/Masonic/ring3.jpg Of course it will depend on the capapbility of your camera how good the pics will be.

In the meantime it doesn’t seem unlikely to have been assayed in London as LW&G was a Birmingham company but the ONLY way to be sure is to find the assay mark. So aside from the marks you’ve mentioned there should also be either be an anchor (Birmingham) or a leopard’s head (London)

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Mike Martin

Posted: 19 November 2011 06:38 AM

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Youu need to get some more pictures! I have used photoshop to enlarge the images you’ve done so far and I can see what you mean now it looks like either a stone mount which would be very unusual or the S&C bit may have been mounted onto the front of an older ring.

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Leyther1

Posted: 19 November 2011 12:23 PM

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Hello
I shall take more pictures and get them on photobucket - I have put the ones I have now on there so would need to learn how to then share it with you? I will get the photos Monday as will ask my friend to bring the ring into work. She did say there is a symbol so hopefully this will be a leopard to denote London which is where he was from.

Thanks so far for your help - much appreciated

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Leyther1

Posted: 22 November 2011 03:50 AM

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Well we have determined the symbol is a leopard so London fits which is good. We are currently cleaning the ring as we think it is O for the year but someone suggested a Q under the magnifying glass. It is looking around year 1949 if an O. We are also going to try to get more images of the Diamong metal shape underneath as to us, it does not look like a repair and is more a purpose-inlaid piece in either silver or platinum.
More later

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Leyther1

Posted: 22 November 2011 08:46 AM

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Does this picture help? The colour is all gold, the picture does look like it is shaded, it is just the star that is either silver or platinum…..does it look like a star or diamond shape to you? and why inside?

thanks

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Mike Martin

Posted: 22 November 2011 04:44 PM

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OK regarding the date letter you need to compare it to these (http://www.jewellerycatalogue.co.uk/gold/date_letters.php) to find out what year it was made. As well as 49 “O” can also be 29, 69 and 88.

I think the answer to the shape needs to be taken to a jeweller to get an answer. It seems quite surreal to me but it isn’t a “Masonic” practise to do it.

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