That was a somewhat interesting post but this part confuses me - "I drew the line at wedding rings and wedding bands. I never stole a person's wedding rings."
How can you tell a ring is a wedding ring? Do wedding rings have some sort of special design? I thought a wedding ring could be any ring. I am married but neither my spouse or I own any jewelry including wedding rings so I don't know.
If you are wondering about the origin of that custom, it's because Jewish weddings are consecrated with a ring, technically any item of value works, but a ring is the custom.
The bride who receives the item must be able to tell more or less what it's worth (so that there is no falsehood involved). If the ring is decorated, or if it's made of more than one metal, or if it has jewels on it, this is more difficult.
It's hard to tell just by looking what the quality of a Jewel is, but everyone knows that gold is worth something, and you can see how much gold there is. (So a hollow ring would also be a problem.)
As a result the guidance is that wedding rings are always plain gold bands.
How many rings would the average person have other than their wedding ring or band? They might have a college ring but isn't worth stealing (initials, graduation year, sometimes a name, all easily identifiable by a pawn shop) unless you can melt it down or have a trusted source that can do that job. We don't have much in the way of jewelry but our parents do and they only have their wedding rings/bands and college rings.
If someone did have other rings, I'd think they'd be visually different, wedding rings typically have one large diamond set with other jewels and a band is dead obvious as it's so plain. A ring with multiple small diamonds or other gemstones (emerald, ruby, etc) would almost always be a safe bet, especially if a ring similar to the traditional wedding ring was available for comparison.
>> "wedding rings typically have one large diamond set with other jewels and a band is dead obvious as it's so plain."
I thought they were usually plain (just the ring, no adornments). Engagement rings tend to be fancier (diamonds etc.) but maybe practice varies between regions.
Your point was to say you and your SO don't wear rings.
Did you grow up under a rock? Have you never, ever interacted with people wearing wedding rings?
If not, fine, fair enough. Judging from your comment history, this doesn't seem to be the case.
To answer your question, you can tell if something is "a thing" by comparing said "thing" to other known and accepted "like things." Does that not make sense?
> Your point was to say you and your SO don't wear rings.
No it wasn't. It was asking what make a wedding ring identifiable as a wedding ring. It confuses me that someone can identify something as a wedding ring when it isn't being worn - I thought that wedding rings were any ring. I know that engagement rings usually have a diamond but I think other rings can have diamonds too?
>Did you grow up under a rock? Have you never, ever interacted with people wearing wedding rings?
Sure, but I don't pay much attention to other people's jewelry because that's just not something I care about. My parents didn't wear wedding rings or any other types of jewelry at all so I guess I did grow up under a rock. I don't think my aunts or uncles wore them either, or does my mother-in-law, - they just aren't "a thing" in my family so I'm out of the cultural loop. Its totally and completely out of my knowledge area. I like learning something new so I figured it was worth asking!
Judging by the variety of comments it seems that there is a variety and the theft's "standards" didn't make sense.
How can you tell a ring is a wedding ring? Do wedding rings have some sort of special design? I thought a wedding ring could be any ring. I am married but neither my spouse or I own any jewelry including wedding rings so I don't know.