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Which Boston ring design below, do you admire the most? Besides discussing the design of these rings, there is a mystery I'm hoping you can help me solve. As a collector of high-end championship rings, I usually know my stuff - but this picture has me baffled. And by the way, my favorite design, hands-down is the Patriots ring shown above. Can anyone help figure out what the heck is going on? I will give full credit on my ring blog to anyone that can help determine if these are real championship rings. And if they are real, how in the world did they wind up together in someone’s authentic Patriots Super Bowl presentation box? First, let’s start with what I know: The wood and glass championship ring presentation box looks to be 100% authentic and is from the most recent Super Bowl ring. It’s a Jostens box and it has the proper frost-engraved wording on the outside of the box (we can see the reverse lettering showing through the glass). A neat design of the Jostens championship ring boxes is that they hold championship rings in place by using a magnet. A small wooden piece of wood, with a two magnetic ends, is covered in velvet and shaped like the letter “u”. These “u” shaped holders hold the championship ring to the bottom of the inside velvet (with the magnet hidden beneath the velvet). The person who owns these three championship rings, has two extra ring holders and is using them to secure the Bruins Championship ring and the Redsox World Series ring in the presentation box. The person, who made this tweet is Max Farrari. In searching the internet for information about him, I found he’s a talented and accomplished amateur golfer from Framingham Massachusetts. So it appears that Max, who made the tweet, was probably posing with someone else’s championship ring set. That’s all I know; so please help if you can shed any light on how these championship rings from three different sports are housed in one presentation box. One possible clue, is that Jostens did make all three championship rings, so could this be the ultimate “Salesman-Sample” ring set or “official Jostens display set”?

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The Nanny, Ben Affleck, Tom Brady and Four Wonderfully Designed Super Bowl Rings Ouzounian, who’s having her five minutes of fame as Ben Affleck’s ex-nanny, is shown enjoying some mile-high fun on a private jet trip to Las Vegas. She was accompanying Ben Affleck and his pal, Tom Brady. As you can see in the photo above, she was photographed wearing Brady’s four Super Bowl rings. In the photo, that has hit the internet, Ouzounian, 28, is wearing the Super Bowl rings along with tight white jeans, a black tank top — and a satisfied smile. Life was good for Ouzounian, the ex-nanny in the photo is clearly relaxed, kicking off her shoes and striking a sexy pose on her seat. Ouzounian had been in the Bahamas with Affleck, 42, and his poor unsuspecting, (now-estranged) famous actress wife, Jennifer Garner, 43, before the pair’s secret trip to Sin City on June 27 for a poker tournament. Affleck, an avid gambler, had initially asked Ouzounian to join him on a flight back to Los Angeles from the Bahamas — while his clueless wife stayed behind with their three kids. On their way to Vegas, Affleck picked up Tom Brady and his four Super Bowl rings. Ben, being a class act, hid Christine the entire trip. “When they got back to LA, Jen heard about their trip without the kids and flipped out. Jen then fired Christine right away, and Ben did nothing about it,” an insider said. Three days after the photo was snapped, Affleck and Garner announced that they were splitting up. I wonder if Tom Brady travels everywhere with his four super bowl rings?

Anyone want to discuss the design of the Super Bowl XXVII rings? The ring on the left is the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl Ring from their 1992 season. This ring was designed and manufactured by Balfour in 10K solid yellow gold. What makes this Super Bowl unique - never having been done before or since - is that the large center diamond was cut and shaped in the size of a star (a tribute to the Cowboys iconic logo). Think about that for a moment: Most diamonds are cut round, or football shaped, but never cut in the shape of a star (see photo above). Although this is the Cowboys third Super Bowl championship, it looks like Jerry Jones and his ego, were more interested in designing a ring celebrating his first Super Bowl victory and no mention is made anywhere on the ring of the previous two championships. In a tradition that continues to this day, the team that loses the Super Bowl is recognized as a champion of their respective conference. The Buffalo Bills 1992 AFC championship ring, shown above, is a beauty, and weighs in at 45 grams (the exact same weight as their championship ring from the two years before). The Bills AFC championship ring was their third AFC title in a row, and each of the four championship rings (if we can jump ahead to their fourth and final Super Bowl appearance from the 1993 season, are all uniquely different). The Bills AFC championship rings were designed and made by Jostens in solid yellow 10K gold.

Anyone want to talk about the design of these rings? What a cool picture and tweet! ________________ What has to be the absolute first championship ring ever produced, shown in the center of the photo above, the Hockey HOF features the first championship ring ever presented - back from 1893. Look how different that championship ring is from today's mega-blinged out championship rings! Although my championship ring blog does not cover Hockey rings as much as it should, the last decade of Hockey championship rings rival Pro Football and Baseball's finest championship rings.

While I would not call the Redskins ring ugly (although their atrocious Super Bowl XXII ring from 1987 really does boarder on being considered ugly) in my onion, the Super Bowl XXVI ring from 1991 is way below the standard set by other team's winning Super Bowl rings. The diamonds on this ring, look like they were designed and laid out by a child.

Anyone want to discuss the design of Super Bowl XXVI rings? The ring on the left is the Washington Redskins Super Bowl Ring from their 1991 season. This ring was designed and manufactured by Tiffany in solid 10K yellow gold. Many Super Bowl ring enthusiasts are not enamored with the design of the Washington Redskins rings and in my opinion, this is a nice improvement over their last Super Bowl ring (also made by Tiffany), from 1987. While the Redskins Super Bowl XXVI ring does not contain any huge diamonds, the ring is loaded with diamonds throughout the top. The championship ring weighs 50 grams. The Buffalo Bills 1991 AFC championship ring, shown above, is a beauty, and weighs in at 45 grams (the exact same weight as their championship ring from the year before). The Bills AFC championship ring was only the second time (the Broncos having done the same design) that celebrated the AFC championship with a diamond-filled letter “A”. The Bills AFC championship rings were designed and made by Jostens in solid yellow 10K gold. Any thoughts or comments?

Amazing condition for a 78 year old item! Congratulations!

Anyone want to discuss the designs of the Super Bowl XXV rings? The ring on the left is the New York Giants Super Bowl Ring from their 1990 season. This ring was designed and manufactured by Balfour in solid 10K yellow gold. Many Super Bowl ring enthusiasts are not enamored with the design of this ring, however, the huge Giant fan-base tends to increase demand for this Super Bowl ring. The ring contains two large marquise diamonds, symbolizing the two Super Bowl titles. The ring weighs 48-49 grams. In a tradition that continues to this day, the team that loses the Super Bowl is recognized as a champion of their respective conference. The Buffalo Bills 1990 AFC championship ring, shown above, is a beauty, and weighs in at 45 grams. The ring originally contained one small center diamond and the top represented the team’s stadium. Many of the players had the championship ring modified by placing small diamonds in the “X” patterns which are actually supposed to be the stadium’s seating and tunnel system. My AFC championship ring shown above has this modification. The Bills AFC championship rings were designed and made by Jostens in solid yellow 10K gold.

Ice-_Cap, thanks for editing his vindictive posts. This is the second time he has attacked me at this site. I have kept my posts more on-topic, only discussing the design aspects of championship rings, while he continues to cause trouble and go off topic. Can you please ban him? I wish I didn't have to visit this great site and see his personal attacks here. I know who he is and have known him for years. I have encouraged him, if he has a problem to contact me privately, away from this site, but for some strange reason that perhaps he only understands, he chooses to stir the pot only at this forum. Please let me know your thoughts Thanks

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I want to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July, and also to talk a little about the Patriots design of their 4 championship rings with a special tie in for July 4th. Because today's a special and patriotic day, here's a photo (that ties in with American Independence) that shows the Patriots four Super Bowl rings and offers the best view to date of their relative sizes: While I'm no fan of the Patriots (in fact I am a huge fan of one of their division rivals), I do love Super Bowl rings and I have to admit, these four championship rings are stunning. Yes, it kills me how the team has been caught cheating during two of their championship years, not to mention the controversial "tuck rule" that helped the team win their first Super Bowl ring. Anyway, this is a great photograph that shows the rings together and displays how Kraft and his organization has done a great job in designing the run of championship rings in a similar theme. I love that each ring is smothered in diamonds, and with all the white color of the gold and diamonds, the black antiquing between the lettering, combined with a red and blue Patriot icon, help make the championship rings stand out. The newest Patriots Super Bowl ring, shown on the far left is so much bigger than the other rings and is easily the largest super bowl ring ever created. Probably because of it's huge production cost, the Patriots had this ring, unlike the first three Super Bowl rings, cast in 10K gold, not 14K gold. I hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July, and I guess for one day a year, we can all be Patriots (yuck, did I say that? I love America but not the New England Patriots football team).

I realize that many of us (and I am totally included in this) love to compare ring sizes when discussing the design of championship rings. A recent photo on twitter reminded me what a challenge this is: Here's the photo that got me thinking..... The two championship rings look to be relatively around the same size. The ring on the left, the Patriots Super Bowl XLIX ring, is more then twice the size of the ring on the right – the Cowboys 1971 Super Bowl VI ring. The total weight of a ring, is not always an accurate determination of how large a ring is. There are a few reasons for this: * 14K solid gold weighs approximately 10% more than 10k solid gold. * 18K gold weighs even more than 14K and Platinum championship rings, such as The Packers Super Bowl XLV ring, weigh even more than 18K gold. * Non gold rings weigh less than 10K gold and because they are made of inexpensive metals, can easily get as large as any super bowl ring and often do. The photo above is a perfect example of how cutting and pasting championship rings together can be misleading; as the Cowboys Super Bowl ring above looks bigger than the Patriots ring. As someone who has taken a lof of pictures of championship rings, the camera does lie! Slight changes in depth can make rings appear to change size quite a bit due to the lack of depth in photographs. Maybe in the future, 3d pictures will help solve this issue. A third issue with comparing championship ring sizes is that the manufacturer can hollow-out rings to make them appear bigger. Here are some examples: The Ravens Super Bowl XLVII ring from 2012 is a huge, magnificent ring. Physically, it’s one of the largest super bowl rings ever, yet, because of it’s 10K gold content, and perhaps because it was hollowed out, it weighs only 88 grams. The Giants Super Bowl XLVI ring from 2011 is physically a lot smaller than the Ravens ring, yet, being made of 14K gold, and perhaps more solid, tips the scales at around 92 grams. The only way to really know the differences between ring sizes is to carefully take photographs and make sure the rings are the same distance from the camera lens. Here’s a great example where you can really compare the size of the Patriots ring to a recent Super Bowl ring – the Saints Super Bowl XLIV ring from 2009:

The shank, with the jersey number looks like an awful design and they could have done so much better. I believe it looks like "replica" quality because of the gleam and the poor picture quality. The ring probably looks much nicer in person or with a properly focused picture. The top of the ring is actually a nice match and complementary of their winning ring from the season before. Unlike some recent combinations of a winning and losing Super Bowl ring, these two could be worn at the same time.

The New York Yankees Monument Park Championship Rings If you asked me last week, I had no idea these Championship Rings even existed: In my humble opinion, I find these rings (the Yankees give them out to new members of their monument park) kind of bland. I wrote a lot more on my blog if you wish to check it out.

I believe this is the new seahawks ring and I can tell by the box, it was made by Tiffany and company. it is remarkably similar to the high-end fan rings from their super bowl victory... I will research this and write about this on my blog tomorrow morning,

Dralec, Great post and great pictures! First off I'd like to clear up a couple of things. The Ravens rings are much closer to be a standard size then you think.... Goldin auctions did make an error in their auction when they claimed a ring was 80 grams. When they reweighed it, it turned out to be about 90 grams. I know that they have a size 10 front office ring coming up for auction soon and that ring weights 86.5 grams. It has probably been cleaned and polished so probably stared like around 88-90 grams (polishing can take off 1-4 grams, depending upon the amount needed to get out scratches). The way they make championship rings is as follows: the tops are done in one production part, and they are all the same size. And by the way, diamonds weigh virtually nothing, especially the tiny ones on the sides of rings. If I buy a championship ring that is missing a tiny diamond, the jeweler charges me practically nothing to replace it. Maybe $20 and most of that is labor to reset the small diamond into the tiny prongs. Next, the ring manufacturer starts out with a set amount of gold. It does not matter if the ring is a size 9, or size 15. They stretch the gold at the bottom of the ring (after the shanks) to accommodate ring sizes. That's why, much to my amazement, super bowl rings that are size 10, generally weigh as much as rings that are size 15. Now here where things change: Say a size 13 player retires and puts on weight. He has his local Jeweler or Jostens resize the ring as his fingers get fatter. They tend to add gold since it's too difficult to stretch a ring that has already been made. Sometimes, that way you see rings that get heavier as time goes on. Also, if a ring is polished a few times, or wares down, they can get lighter. However, they leave the factory at pretty much the same weight. These pictures are great, and really show how much bigger and wider the rings are. Please remember that 10K gold is about 10% lighter than 14K gold. So if the super bowl 39 ring weighs 104 grams, it would weigh around 90 grams had it been made in 10K. Also, looking at my notes, the Super Bowl 39 ring, made in 14K, contained 4.94 Karats in diamonds.

Thanks so much!

Comparing to Patriots Super Bowl XLIX Ring to their Other Championship Rings Here are the four New England Patriot Super Bowl rings, shown together courtesy of Jostens, who designed and manufactured each one: It’s maddening for Championship ring collectors to assemble the important facts about new championship rings. The team and manufacturer release few details such as gold composition (ie 10K, vs. 14K vs. platinum), weight size, total diamond weight, and details about the selected presentation box. When details are announced or discovered, there’s always omissions of important facts. Examples include if the staff received the same ring players did, and if not, how they differ in size, features, and other details such as a less costly gold-mix and less diamonds. Expanding on the issue of multiple versions, if there’s “B” versions, “C” versions and sometimes “D” versions, each lower tier ring version contains a multitude of less precious metals and diamonds. If so, how much is the drop-off? Jostens did announce the total carat weight this week. The Super bowl ring consists of 205 diamonds, totaling 4.85 carrots. You can read my earlier blog entries from earlier this week to learn other details I have uncovered about this ring. What we still don’t know is if the ring is made of 10K, 14K or 18K gold, or dare I say platinum? We also don’t know the weight of the ring. Without these two facts, it’s not possible to know if this ring is the biggest Super Bowl ring ever. After photographing a couple of hundred championship rings, I know first hand that the camera can play tricks on you. In the photo above, because the Super Bowl XLIX ring is closer to the camera than the others, that will make the ring appear even larger than it is. So, we can’t deduce from the photograph how much bigger the ring is than the previous largest Patriot Super Bowl ring, the iconic Super Bowl XXIX ring; shown to the immediate right of the latest ring. Perhaps a better clue as to the size of the latest super bowl ring can be seen below: The latest championship ring dwarfs the 57 gram, 14K solid yellow gold Saints Super Bowl XLIV ring made by tiffany. One thing we do know about the new Patriots Super Bowl ring is the team’s commitment and desire to keep the same championship ring theme in all their rings. Like the Raiders championship rings from the 60s-90s, the Patriots features have been seen on all their championship rings. They Include: White Gold (no yellow gold championship rings). Probably because it’s a better match of their team colors. Their Patriot logo is prominently centered in each championship ring and the iconic logo provides a nice and much-needed color against the all white ring tops. Ring tops that are packed with white diamonds. Lombardi Trophies with large marquise diamonds featured at the top of the trophy. Each championship ring celebrates the total number of team Super Bowl victories with the proper amount of corresponding Lombardi trophies.

New Details Emerge on the Patriots 2014 Super Bowl Ring As pictures of the latest championship ring are released on twitter, new details are discovered. Player rings have a very unusual feature; and I believe this is the first time this personalization feature has been used in any championship ring I have ever seen: The Player's uniform number, shown on the side of the ring (called the ring shank), contains real diamonds outlined in their jersey number. That means that each super bowl ring varies in the number of diamonds. A player with the number "88" would contain 12 diamonds in each "8" for a total of 24 diamonds; while the player who wears #11, would contain a total of 8 diamonds. (Click the photo below to enlarge the picture) Additional personalization is found inside the ring, (see above) where it looks like the recipient's signature is shown below the words, "We Are All Patriots". It's possible, Kraft coined this phrase and therefore his signature is in every ring, but my gut feeling is that each championship ring is personalized with the owner's signature. The final detail to emerge yesterday was the Patriots and Jostens's choice in choosing the wooden presentation box. The Super Bowl XLIX ring will be housed in Jostens's standard glass and wood presentation box with led lighting. This is the same box that was used with the Packers 2010 Super Bowl XLV ring. The last time Jostens made a super bowl ring, the Ravens 2012 championship ring, Jostens used a completely different box.

Here are some more pictures.... click on the photo below for a bigger picture....

Awesome Ring! Thanks for the pictures. Here's what Jostens said about their ring: In keeping with tradition, the championship ring features a unique shape and industry-changing design. The stunning ring, handcrafted by Jostens, celebrates the team’s DO YOUR JOB attitude with the largest Super Bowl ring ever made, crafted in white gold with a minimum of 4.85 carat weight and a total stone count of 205 diamonds. The ring showcases the team’s four Lombardi Trophies; each created by a marquise-cut diamond. The ring top features the team’s iconic Patriots logo, surrounded by 44 pavé-set round diamonds. The words WORLD CHAMPIONS flank the ring top and 143 additional round diamonds are pavé-set to complete this uniquely shaped ring. The right side features the season’s motto DO YOUR JOB, the final score of the historic game, the season record and the Super Bowl XLIX logo. The left side lists all four championship years, a silhouette of Gillette Stadium and the player’s name and number. Each player’s number is set in diamonds.

Anyone want to discuss the design of these two rings from Super Bowl XXIV? The ring on the left is the San Francisco Forty Niners Super Bowl Ring from their 1989 season. This ring was designed and manufactured by Jostens in solid 10K yellow gold. Unlike the year before, the 49ers decided not to continue their theme from their second and third Super Bowl rings, where they had celebrated the number of Super Bowl victories by incorporating Lombardi Trophies on the ring top, with each one containing a beautiful and large marquise diamond. Make no mistake, this ring contains four very large marquise diamonds, but in this Super Bowl ring, the four diamonds take center stage. The Denver Broncos 1989 AFC championship ring, shown above, is a beauty, and weighed in at 41-42 grams. It contains 14 small diamonds. And in a strange twist, there are three large diamonds in the center that represent the team’s third Super Bowl appearance in four seasons (all losses). What makes this strange is that the designers completely ignored the fact that this was the team’s fourth Super Bowl appearance (all losses).

Patriots will receive latest Super Bowl rings at Robert Kraft’s house Sunday Look for social media (ie Twitter) to light up Sunday evening as players will be tweeting pictures of the newest Super Bowl rings: According to the Boston Globe, the New England Patriots will receive their Super Bowl XLIX Championship rings at the home of owner Robert Kraft this coming Sunday. The designer and manufacturer of the latest Super Bowl ring, Jostens, has made no mention of being awarded the contract to design and manufacture the ring, and no official announcement was made in the weeks leading up to this event. It remains to be seen, if the design and size of the latest Super Bowl ring, is affected by the bad feelings and controversy many fans and other teams now feel towards Kraft, Brady, Belichick, and the rest of the Patriots organization. As soon as the Super Bowl ring pictures and details are released, I will provide extensive coverage.

Anyone want to talk about the Design of the Super Bowl XXIII rings? The ring on the left is the San Francisco Forty Niners Super Bowl Ring from their 1988 season. This ring was designed and manufactured by Jostens in solid 10K yellow gold and continuing their theme from their second Super Bowl ring, this ring also has the number of Super Bowl victories shown by incorporating Lombardi Trophies, with each one containing a beautiful and large marquise diamond. The ring weighs in at approximately 43-44 grams. I'm apologizing again that the championship rings shown above contain my web-site address. It's not done for self promotion or for ego. If I didn’t include the graphic, other web sites would "take" my images, especially the sellers on ebay, who appear out of nowhere and offer the cheap replicas that are made in China. Collectors often wonder why the ring companies such as Jostens, Balfour, and Tiffany allow this? No one seems to know why these offerings continue, it's a shame (or opportunity depending upon how you see it). When I do post pictures that are already on the internet, I won’t place my web-site address in the image.