GUEST: This is my mother's ring.

She got it from my father, probably in the late '60s or early '70s.

Our neighbor was a jeweler in a small town in New Jersey.

My father just walked downtown one day and came back with this for my mother.

It wasn't her birthday.

It wasn't a holiday and it's always been a puzzle.

APPRAISER: So why do you think he bought it for her?

GUEST (chuckling): I think he felt guilty about something in his past.

(laughter) APPRAISER: Oh.

GUEST: I think he was making amends.

APPRAISER: (chuckles) What would you like to know about the ring?

GUEST: Well, I don't know-- is it real?

(chuckling): Because it's a large stone.

APPRAISER: It is real.

It is a real sapphire.

GUEST: Good to know.

APPRAISER: And it's a really beautifully cut, old cushion cut stone.

It's mounted in platinum and it's framed by old single cut diamonds.

I think the ring was made probably in the 1940s.

GUEST: Wow!

APPPRAISER: And it's very pretty.

There are no hallmarks that would tell us who made it or where it's from.

However, based on the style, I would suspect that it was probably made by a high-end jewelry maker in New York City.

In order to determine where it was mined, we would have to send it out to a laboratory.

But that cut and color, it's very typical of sapphires that we see that have been mined out of Ceylon or modern-day Sri Lanka.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: I would be comfortable saying that it's a Ceylon or Sri Lankan sapphire.

It's very clean.

When you look at it under magnification, you really don't see any inclusions.

And I did a weight by formula, and it's coming out to be about 7-and-a-half carats.

GUEST: Wow, that's exciting.

APPRAISER: So it’s a nice size.

Now, what was your mother like?

Did she wear it?

GUEST: She did when she went out to dinner.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: She was never a showy woman.

My father was not extravagant with gifts, so this is really a big surprise.

APPRAISER: Any idea what he might have paid for it?

GUEST: No idea.

But this was a good friend and a neighbor.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And maybe he called my father and said, "Ed, get down here.

I've got the ring for you to give your wife."

(chuckles) Long-suffering wife.

He was a straight up guy.

I think he just knew that he was sometimes difficult.

APPRAISER: As you might know, with sapphires, they are very often heat-treated in order to enhance that color.

So you would have to send it to a laboratory in order to determine that, which for a couple of $100 I would recommend doing because then you would know for sure.

If it's heat-treated, you'd be in the $5,000 to $10,000 range.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: If it is not heat-treated, we'd be in the $15,000 to $20,000 range at auction.

8:47 GUEST: Wow.

That is excellent.