Choosing a Precious Metal

After doing my preliminary research, I pretty much ended up using that, “Seven Facts for Six Metals” chart to decide what material to choose my ring to be out of.  The intrinsic value was a huge selling point for me because buying an engagement ring is a large investment – as it should be – but I wanted the best of the best so that the ring would be a part of my wife’s life and then of the lifes of those whom the ring is passed down to.

I have cuff links from my father that he passed down to me years ago; they’re made of platinum and have such an incredible look to them after many years.  I’ve had them lightly restored a few years back – just to clean up any small scuffs on it.  I didn’t realize until recently however, that what I had done to them couldn’t necessarily be done to other precious metals.  Platinum has the same surface strength of white and yellow gold, however, neither can be restored with such ease as platinum.

I say all of this because, of all the types of jewelry out there, rings probably get the roughest treatment since they’re on your hands.  I wanted to invest in something strong, valuable and restorable – all of which only seem to fully apply to platinum.  See where I’m going here?

Ring Shopping Pointers

Before I knew for certain whether or not I was going to propose to my girlfriend, I wanted to begin doing the research ahead of time so that I could be a bit more prepared when the day actually came.  I think this had a lot to do with everyone asking me, “when are you popping the question?” over and over and over again after dating my gf for many years.  Everyone was rooting for us, but I just needed the time to make sure it was right and know exactly what I wanted to propose with… not to mention how to propose.

Anyway, I began my process shopping around in stores in NYC.  Intense to say the least.  I felt descended upon by sales associates, though they were nice and had all the best intentions, I wasn’t so comfortable in that kind of setting.  I did however, suck it up and invested weeks, if not a few months, into perusing various stores for “the ring.”  I had many sales people really try and pin me with specific metals and precious gems, which I didn’t enjoy.  The object of my search was to keep all options open, not to get things immidiately.

What I ended up doing was taking my research from stores ….to…. my computer, believe it or not.  Online research ended up being my saving grace during my engagement ring endeavor.  I truly, TRULY enjoyed perusing rings at my leisure, esp. without the looming presence of a sales associate.

I began by searching around for information on the different metals engagement rings are traditionally made out of.  Below is the exact chart that I came across while doing my research – it is so simplistically laid out and allowed me to immediately decide what metal I was going to have my wife’s ring cast in.

Precious Metal Options

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