SS Ring What do you think?

[Jan]

Rings were quite often cut off those KIA by Kameraden etc so that they could be returned to NOK , then were lost for whatever reason before that could happen !!

Thats very true!

Best,

Jan

[jamoros]

what is NOK?

Rings were quite often cut off those KIA by Kameraden etc so that they could be returned to NOK , then were lost for whatever reason before that could happen !!

[Adrian Stevenson]

"Next of Kin"

[AZPhil]

Great Thread. Thanks everybody!!!!

Semper Fi
Phil

[jamoros]

Jan, I bought this ring, from a guy who always sells dug out items, told me it was found in Germany. Would appreciate if you gave me your views about it, Best Regards, Juan

Freezing and melting of water in the soil could be one possibility. Expanding water breaks metal easily. as can be seen on cracks on helmets etc.

Best,

Jan

[Wagriff]

True that, Paul. But if a ring was cut with, say, a pair of side cutters, I would expect to see the signs of a cut on the shank, rather than a uneven set of edges. And this would not, of course, explain battlefield recovered rings that have broken shanks but were still insitu on the cadaver's finger bones. Just looking, for example, at the recovered rings by Maxim in his thread, you see many such broken rings. Some rings I've noticed have Cracks in them but no open gaps or concave denting to them, indicating some sort of pressure has been applied at one time or another.

Another theory I have always considered is that these rings may have been on cadavers that froze in the Eastern Front Winter conditions. Certainly, if a finger froze solid(along with the rest of the body, of course), it would become Hard and would swell to considerably larger than it's normal size-which wold be enough to crack or split a fairly thin Silver ring shank. Everyone has seen ice cubes that push up and above ice cube trays when freezing. Considering the amount of water in human flesh, it would be reasonable to assume the body would also swell and enlarge with it's water content hard frozen in a Russian Winter.

[hdmarley]

I agree that a few pictures of a ring I may sell sure has made for some interesting articles to read. I just unsure where or what market to sell it in. Shipping across seas has always made me nervous 😁 But done it many times. Couldn't imagine loosing gems like all these rings we love. Too hard to find.

[ajax3985]

An SS officer with Rheumatoid arthritis might snap a ring shank. Human body is not an ice cube tray and the water is stored in the tissue, in extreme temps I am not even sure the body would swell and now we need two bodies. These answers have to be on the web. Looks like the body would freeze before it expands from the gasses and ligaments and joints are the last effected, so there are your fingers.

[hdmarley]

Ha ha ha ha I'm sure there are collectors who have donated their body to science. I live 30 min from Dr Bill Bass's Body Farm. I actually visited it while in college with him. But I wasnt into rings at the time to ask such a interesting question!

[ajax3985]

Extreme cold does halt decomposition, you get a frozen mummy and not enough time for bloating and the initial gases escape through open extremities such as the nose and mouth but even then the body would be frozen solid on the eastern front before that part of decomposition comes into play.