The "SS Honor Ring" Wheels come off....

The rings at issue appear to be cast rather than stamped, which isn't period correct. Or at least that is my take from page, the casting. They show wear patterns and flaws that look to be consistent with someone making poorly cast copies of an already worn ring.

nirvana said:

I'm familiar with jewelry generally, but I'll say what I know here. The band was die stamped out of one piece of silver. It was then bent into a ring shape and soldered. The joint is right behind the skull. The skull was made as a second piece and then soldered on. Ring was sized and then engraved.

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Interesting, but wouldn`t the following senario not be a lot easier?

•Two boxes of parts are at hand, for quick assembly. Die struck bands, and die struck skulls
•Ring is ordered, and size specified...

This means that sizing is done in an instant, engraving can be done quickly and precisely, and each individual order handled in a jiffy.
That`s my take anyway.

nirvana said:

The rings at issue appear to be cast rather than stamped.

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No, they do, there is no question with that at all, and I can see "something" on another image that nodody has picked up on yet that, to me at least, almost certainly points to the ring being cast... BUT, it`s nothing definite, and certainly not the evidence or proof you would need in order to start a thread that is "conclusive". Which is exactly how Antonio Scalpini started his thread off and continued, even going so far as to claim that Don Boyle has "commited fraud" by claiming the ring was ground dug."

The reality is, all this ra-ra boils down to nothing more than various opinions based on third party images.

And your post too, contains the word "appear". So would mine if I was to publically comment on this ring. But the WAFites have skipped the definitive proof part and gone straight to the gallows. From my point of view, that`s just not how you expose a fake, and certainly not how you "expose a scam" because there simply is none - at the moment!

And as said, even if this one ring does turn out to be a fake, you`d really need to find a few more fakes with a CoA from Don Boyle before you could even start thinking about any "scam."
And if you could find 2, or even 10 fake rings with his CoA, yet find 100 or more genuine from him, would that still be evidence of a scam? Mistakes of course, and then certainly grounds to raise awareness that his CoAs for rings should not be taken at face value, but a scam? fraud? Far from it.
That thread needs to be cleaned up and people who are interested need to start again.

Out of interest, here is an item that I believe is a cast piece of rubbish, even though the asking price sugguests otherwise, and it has Don Boyles CoA with it. Would stumbling upon these third party images warrant a thread claiming fraud? claiming that Don Boyle`s CoA`s are now worthless? I can see it is cast without having it, and could lay my case out far better than Antonio Scalpini did, but would it be right? From my point of view absolutely not!