You Can’t Buy This Ring

You can’t buy this ring. Probably not anyway. Vintage ring photo by Elise Anthony

Let me tell you about the day I brought shame to my family, all around a pretty ring that caught my fancy.

First though, a word about my Mom. She has sold Native American silver and turquoise jewelry for 10+ years and she’s super picky. I mean, pull her jeweler’s loupe out of her purse in the middle of a crowded garage sale picky.

She’s fairly laid-back, but there are a few things that make her really angry, and fake jewelry being sold as the real deal makes her blood boil.

You see, buying and selling old silver and turquoise carries a few risks. Sometimes a piece that looks right turns out all wrong and you end up with something that has no value). You have to know and inspect all the details, the kind of knowledge that takes years to accrue and a few hard lessons.

So, as a general guideline, she doesn’t prefer to wear or sell anything that’s not authentic silver or turquoise. She just won’t even.

Jewelry hack: If you’re going to buy vintage jewelry of unknown origin, at least bring a magnet, because that’s what I didn’t do (jewelry-buying mistake 1).

So, back to my shame. Just look at this ring, all shiny with promise. Check out the carved leaf, which can be found on similar Old Pawn pieces (mistake 2, a wrong assumption). I got giddy (jewelry-buying mistake 3) when I discovered that the ring fit my index finger, because unlike my mother, my hands aren’t dainty and small.

Did I mention that the seller had a ton of rings, some whose value was a worth great deal and very obviously legit? We talked for a while, he went into great detail about most of the rings. So by now I’m really to do the thing, and even though I had a prickly feeling about the opaque white stone that looked a little weathered (mistake 4), that ring looked great on my finger and I handed over a solid, crisp Jackson. Mistake 5, it was her money, not mine.

Mom was immediately suspicious once she realized what I had done, procuring a magnet out of her bag and teaching me a valuable lesson — don’t assume and don’t be afraid to ask to test the wares first. Her magnet immediately picked up the ring, proving that it wasn’t silver. And if it’s not silver, it’s almost never turquoise.

Today the ring of shame resides in my Mom’s showcase as a warning and a lesson. Go ahead, ask. She might get a little mad again (at me, not you). She will demo the magnet trick. Just don’t ask — you can’t buy this ring. She won’t sell it.

— Elise