Should I, or Shouldn't I??? Only God knows for sure...Dam I hate when I have to make a decision such as this...Puts a whole new meaning to "the other side of the coin".

Greetings Collectors,

Pictured here is a ring I bought off eBay and ironicly it is from the same very large seller of whom I bought the 5 silver eagles from, for a total of less than $150. In my previous post a "Lottery win on eBay", one of those "raw" silver eagles turned out being the "so-called" rare 2008-W with the reverse of the 2007-W. This seller is not a coin dealer per se but has coins from time to time but knows not what is rare and what's not.

My issue at hand is whether or not to destroy this almost 3/4 ounce 14k gold ring in order to find out if this 1911 Indian quarter eagle has a "D" mintmark on the reverse? If it does have the very scarce Denver mint mark, this coin may be worth up to $8-$10,000.

The issue at hand is "three-fold". #1 Is if the ring could be "carefully" disected without harming the coin? (this would retain the greatest value) #2 If the surgery did not go well, a 1911-D even in a slab that was labled "ex-jewelry" would still be a very valuble coin indeed. #3 And this is by far the worst case, would be that the quarter eagle turns out to be a "no mint mark" Philadelphia coin in which an "AU" and possible an "ex-jewelry AU" would be a melt price coin. However I guess you could throw a 4th senerio in and that's to leave the dam thing alone and have a nice $800-$1000 ring that I could maybe swap for a pre-1908 $10 liberty.

I am still undecided as to what to do and if kept the way it is at present, the ring is a huge "hunk of gold" and a very attractive piece of jewelry. It also appears to be rather old, as in maybe as old, as a ring made in the 40's or 50's. This tends to have me thinking that if the piece is that old, a 1911-D "would not" have been a "super valuble" coin at the time, thus one that someone would not have hesitated to have made into a "coin-ring". A coin, mind you, worth a little more than others, but not like the difference the same deal would have amounted to in todays dollars.

I have had the ring now for about 6-weeks and I am no closer to making a decision today than I was at the time I received it in the mail. Whoever made the ring did an awesome job in the construction as far as being sturdy and "well put together" along with being a very attractive piece as well. ("eye appeal wise")

I am convinced that no matter what the verdict is as far as the mint mark, the ring will get destroyed in the process of getting the coin removed. Another part that makes it such a "tease" is that the reverse is only partly obscured. It only less than a 1/4 inch more was visible, I could see if it was a D or a P.

For now I am going to leave it be and just wear it from time to time because the ring is so attractive. One option I have is to re-sell it on the bay and let the curiosity kill some other "cat". But then I would probably get an email from the buyer at $7-$800 and read him saying, "you're not gonna beleive what I found when I had this ring taken apart"! This is definately something I don't want to hear. Anyone out there have any advice/suggestions? I am open to any and all ideas. In the meantime "Happy collecting" to all. Me, I'm just gonna sit here and stress over "What to Do"???

WKF