{"id":14144,"date":"2016-03-06T09:09:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T14:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/?p=14144"},"modified":"2024-01-11T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T20:02:08","slug":"what-do-the-letters-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/what-do-the-letters-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT DO THE LETTERS MEAN?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"blog-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/What-Do-The-Letters-Inside-Rings-Mean.gif\" alt=\"What Do The Letters Inside Rings Mean?\" title=\"What Do The Letters Inside Rings Mean?\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-14145\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>10k CN [D]???<\/h2>\n<p>\nI get so many <strong>emails<\/strong> on this a day, <strong>it&#8217;s insane<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\nPeople want to know what the letters or numbers mean that are stamped inside their rings.<\/p>\n<p><h2>Examples would be:<\/h2>\n<p>\n<strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4K WB<\/li>\n<li>T.H.E.,U w\/ an arrow run through it<\/li>\n<li>750 &#038; 110 VR<\/li>\n<li>IBB<\/li>\n<li>9CI CJM<\/li>\n<li>CAL<\/li>\n<li>MAZ<\/li>\n<li>ZC<\/li>\n<li>lkk<\/li>\n<li>MA<\/li>\n<li>a\\<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\nMost people already know what some of the words and numbers mean, like <strong>14K, PLAT, SS, .585<\/strong> (and if not, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/marks-stamped-inside-rings\/\">see my full list of stamps and numbers here<\/a>). But the letters that usually ajoin these are very different indeed.<\/p>\n<p>\n9 times out of ten, they don&#8217;t refer to the ring at all. As in, <strong>the type of metal it is<\/strong>, or the actual gemstones or diamonds, or even the <strong>carat weight<\/strong> or ring size&#8230; (normal things that are generally marked inside the ring shank).<\/p>\n<p><h2>Letters are often 1 of 3 things:<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>The initials of the <strong>Goldsmith <\/strong>(the person who carved and created your ring)<\/li>\n<li>The initials of the <strong>Jeweler <\/strong>(the company that sells the link, like Tiffany or Hearts on Fire)<\/li>\n<li>The initials or <strong>logo <\/strong>of the <strong>Manufacturer <\/strong>who produces the ring.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\nIt&#8217;s like me putting &#8220;<strong>RS<\/strong>&#8221; inside a band. It&#8217;s meaningful to me, and I can identify my own work, but it&#8217;s not very helpful to anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>\nWith <strong>7.4 billion people on Earth<\/strong>, and with thousands and thousands of designers, jewelry stores and manufacturers, it&#8217;s easy to see that the initials and letters and numbers could be anything:<br \/>\n<strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3 stars<\/li>\n<li>255<\/li>\n<li>M276<\/li>\n<li>1925<\/li>\n<li>D with square around it<\/li>\n<li>C 25<\/li>\n<li>G 97 E<\/li>\n<li>08 9<\/li>\n<li>HB<\/li>\n<li>G3<\/li>\n<li>IB25<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><h2>RS MEANS:<\/h2>\n<p>\nThe &#8220;<strong>RS<\/strong>&#8221; I used as an example could refer to Richard Scott, Robin Starling, Ralph Sherlock, Raymond Stores&#8230; or whomever. <\/p>\n<p>\nIt could be <strong>endless searching<\/strong> for the right RS. That&#8217;s also why I started another post for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/unidentified-stamps-inside-rings\/\">unidentified jewelry stamps<\/a>, to keep track of them all and to allow others to help identify these <strong>crazy letters, symbols and numbers<\/strong>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\nPlus, keep in mind that the ring stamp may have <strong>not been hit hard enough<\/strong>? Maybe only a portion of the actual stamp (like the 4K shown in the image) made it to the ring? Or, maybe some of the letters or numbers<strong> got rubbed away<\/strong> by normal wear and tear? Maybe they were <strong>polished out?<\/strong> Maybe the ring was repaired or sized and <strong>the letters got cut out?<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>\nIn reality, <strong>you&#8217;ll probably never know<\/strong> what exactly happened or what it is.<\/p>\n<p>\nThere&#8217;s <strong>no official list<\/strong> anywhere that people can put their identifying marks on, so everyone would know. <\/p>\n<p><h2>It&#8217;s all just a big mystery<\/h2>\n<p>\n(They do sell <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/21SE7Sj\">jeweler&#8217;s hallmark stamp books<\/a> that lists many of <strong>the more popular ones<\/strong>, and it could help you.)<\/p>\n<p>\nSo if you&#8217;ve got something in your ring that <strong>doesn&#8217;t make sense<\/strong>, either <strong>ask the jeweler<\/strong> that you bought it from, take it to an <strong>antique dealer<\/strong> (they got a good eye for this), or <strong>leave it in the comments below<\/strong>, and maybe someone else will know.<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Cheers! :)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>10k CN [D]??? I get so many emails on this a day, it&#8217;s insane. People want to know what the letters or numbers mean that are stamped inside their rings. Examples would be: 4K WB <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/what-do-the-letters-mean\/\" title=\"WHAT DO THE LETTERS MEAN?\">[Read More&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diamonds","category-engagement","category-jewelry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewelry-secrets.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}