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Is a 10th century ring w/ some lead & antimony safe to wear?

July 12, 2011

Greetings,

My name is Elijah and I am recently engaged. In return for the 1920s engagement ring that I bought my fiancee, she bought me a ring that was noted as a "10th Century Viking Bronze Ring". I'm not so much concerned about the actual history of the ring at this point, but more if it is safe for me to wear on a daily basis.

That being said, I took it to a scrap metal recycling yard that was gracious enough to test it with their mass spectrometer. The following is the results of that test:

Cu 93.59%
Sn 2.54%
Pb 2.41%
Zn .338%
Sb .298%
Fe .240%
Cr .18%
Ti .16%

The two results that concern me are the Lead and Antimony. The respective percentages are rather low, but I wasn't sure is prolonged exposure would be hazardous. There are also two deposits which appear to be solder - one at the bottom of the ring holding it together, and a second deposit inside the band.

Thanks for any insight that you could provide.

Elijah Yearick
Interested Student - Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

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Hi, Elijah.

According to my reading of www.rings-things.com/LEAD.HTM, small amounts of lead like this should not be an issue in adult jewelry.

As for the antimony, you might want to look at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp23.pdf. Your numbers strike me as being quite low in antimony, and I wouldn't be concerned myself. But questions of how safe is safe enough are always rather personal.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 12, 2011