Hello historians and other smart people of reddit. My friend has a ring with inscription Univercity of Adelphi (i think) and a year 1896. He would like to know what was the purpose of that ring and a bit of history. We are not from USA so we don't know for what things those kind of rings are given.
It looks like its made of gold and its heavy.
Inscription on the underside of the ring says name Jonathan.
Here are pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/wRRpXTW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5Al00ji.jpg
That is a class ring. When people graduate from college, they can buy a ring from their university. The stone will usually be one of the university colors, and it will have the name of the university and the university seal as a design as part of the ring. In the case of Adelphi University, the school was founded in 1896, so the ring is not from 1896. The year is written because many schools include the year of the school's founding as part of their seal or as part of the ring. It's common to have your name engraved in the ring, though usually your full name, not just first name. It's also common to have the year of graduation on the ring, but just the last two digits, like "86" for 1986. It looks like that ring might say "86" or "85" just beneath the school insignia. It's not clear on the photo you provided, but if you look at the side of the ring, you might be able to see it.
