Redundant engagement rings

You're tempting some outrageous responses there yogagran. My sister threw hers in the River Mersey and never looked back. I was a bit more cautious and sold mine - can't remember what the money went on. I suppose it's what you feel they represent now, as some women will have no wish to use them ever again, and others may feel an attachment to those symbols of a marriage, even though it has ended.

I was married over 21yrs had 3 children , have now been married for the 2nd time for 17yrs.. I gave my first engagement ring to my eldest daughter but still have mine and my first husbands wedding rings , I thought I might give them to my middle daughter and my son eventually thats if they want them..

If you really want to do something with them why not think about having earings made from them to your own design,or make a piece of jewellery for a member of your family,but honestly most girl's I have known who divorced sent their rings packing with the x-husband.

My original engagement ring is Victorian; it cost £8.10, and it has now split and is unmendable. (I now have a beautiful diamond one.) And there's another of the same age, from my mother, in the same condition. Both have small rubies and diamonds inset. Now, what do I do? I think sell them, though you don't get much, and buy a new (old, if you see what I mean) ring. DH thinks keep them, but then what will those who finally inherit them do? What do my GN friends think?

Years ago, I had several gold jewellery items that were broken or scratched and I took them to a jewellery workshop where they were all melted down and made into a lovely plain bangle that I still wear today. It cost a reasonable amount at the time. I don't what what they would do with the stones, but it might be worth talking to a jeweller about the possibilities.

I know someone who has had the stones removed from her engagement and eternity ring and reset in a random pattern into a new, chunky, modern silver ring. It looks lovely, but my engagement ring is just one sapphire surrounded by diamond chips (very much like Princess Diana's ring which is now worn by Kate - mine is just a fraction of the size!). I don't want to sell it as I still feel an attachment to it but don't like to wear it as it is.

yogagran have it made into a nice pendent and treat your self to a new chain for it .I have my mothers rings and her jewellery and am going to do something similar for my daughter when we have some time to really think about what we want to do.

I am surprised at the number of grans who mention mother's engagement rings. I do not know anybody of my mother's generation who had one. Wartime brides may have been the reason of course.

I, too, have my mother's engagement ring. I just like to wear it on my finger. harrigran My parents got married shortly before the war, after a very long engagement, but waited until afterwards to start their family.

My mother, a wartime bride, had a gorgeous white gold + diamond engagement ring. My sister now has it and wears it. I inherited my Mother's Mother's ring. It was too small for my fat fingers so passed it on to my DD2. Recently, one of the five diamonds fell out of this ring so DD2 took it to the jewellers for repair and was advised that it was a very valuable ring, Irish and 160+ years old. This ring was obviously not new when it was given to my grandmother and we guess that it was in fact her Irish Mother in Law's ring as my Greatgrandfather came from Ireland to Scotland, late 1800s, the once wealthy family having fallen on hard times. All this family history in a ring!

When my daughter married I had the diamond removed from my engagement ring and made into a" solitaire" pendant on a fine gold chain which she wore on her wedding day. She was thrilled and I felt that good use had been made of something that had meant so much to me many years ago.

My original engagement ring (garnet) was stolen in a burglary 10 years ago along with the jewellery left to me by my mother, who had died a few months previously. (To be honest I minded much more about this .) I bought a replacement ring (3 garnets!!) but it doesn't really have any sentimental value for me.

That I understand raggygranny ...my father's house was broken in to ...all my mother's jewellery ...including engagement and wedding rings were stolen ...at the time my father hadn't felt able to pass them on to me ... the emotions were still too raw for him.

My wedding ring is an amalgam of my grandmother's wedding ring (with which I was married) and my German step MiL's parents' rings. They were married, all of them, in 1912. So significant. Think I may do the same with the other rings, as you suggest. xx

A friend had 3 unworn rings - mother's engagement ring, her own engagement ring and a dress ring. She took them to a jewellery designer/manufacturer who intertwined the shanks of the three rings, then took the stones and re-set them all across the top. She now has a single stunning ring which she wears all the time.