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I'm looking for some ballpark estimations on how much gold content is in the "average" woman's wedding band (think very large sampling and loose estimate).

Background for the question:

A co-worker and I were talking about gold and silver and prospecting and treasure hunting and stuff as we rode along on the job the other day. We passed a cemetery and it occurred to me that when my mother was interred a few years ago, the family kept her engagement ring and the string of pearls she wore for the viewing, but we made it a point to leave her wedding band on her finger. Is this a common thing, I wonder? Ignoring jewelry, what about gold teeth? Has anyone on here ever considered just how much gold lies beneath the ground in the average cemetery, or how much more treasure gets squirrelled away there every year for the archaeologists or grave robbers of the future to find? Just interested in your comments and calculations.

I'm purposely leaving theft by funeral home workers (which we would be fools to believe doesn't happen) out of the conversation. Also, please ignore the morbidity of the topic--this is purely an intellectual exercise, and I am in no way suggesting anyone take to digging up the dead. Physical difficulty (digging, opening vaults, breaking into caskets), as well as legal, moral, and ethical considerations aside, there's the whole "ick" factor, plus I'm told they don't like it very much.

Still, though, anyone ever wonder?

Shouldn't this be in the WTT section?

WTT: Ryedale Apprentice for pick axe and shovel!

Hadn't ever heard of this idea but I would like to get my hands on the punks that thinks it's cool to steal the bronze plaques off of the veteran's graves in our area.

The average woman wears a size 6, with a circumference of 51mm. If we assume a cross sectional area of 4 square mm, you wind up with 204 cubic mm. Assuming 14k, you're left with 119 cubic mm, or .119mL of 24k. Multiply that times the density of 19.32g/mL, and I'd hazard a guess of 2.3g/ring.

Or you could ask the cash for gold guys.

Engineer wrote:Or you could ask the cash for gold guys.

5 Dollah.

mbailey1234 wrote:Hadn't ever heard of this idea but I would like to get my hands on the punks that thinks it's cool to steal the bronze plaques off of the veteran's graves in our area.

+1k!

Engineer wrote:The average woman wears a size 6, with a circumference of 51mm. If we assume a cross sectional area of 4 square mm, you wind up with 204 cubic mm. Assuming 14k, you're left with 119 cubic mm, or .119mL of 24k. Multiply that times the density of 19.32g/mL, and I'd hazard a guess of 2.3g/ring.

Or you could ask the cash for gold guys.

OK, so just spit-balling here. Let's assume we're not talking about gold teeth or earrings or anything else--just womens' basic wedding bands. Keep in mind the only actual statistic I looked up was the number of deaths per year in the US (2011), which was 2,468,435.
Assume 90% of those are adults, so 2,221,591.
Assume 50% of those are women, so 1,110,795.
Assume 80% of those are married, so 888,636.
Assume 75% of those are buried (as opposed to cremated), so 666,477.
Assume a mere 1% of those are buried with their wedding bands, so 6,665.
Assume each of those is buried with a ring containing 2.3 grams of AU, so a bare minimum of 15,328 grams (492.31 OZT) of gold gets buried with women in cemeteries in the US per year.

Like I said, just a curious intellectual exercise. I think my numbers are WAY conservative. What say you all?
I think in a thousand years or so, our cemeteries of today will be proverbial gold mines!

rexmerdinus wrote:Assume a mere 1% of those are buried with their wedding bands, so 6,665.
Assume each of those is buried with a ring containing 2.3 grams of AU, so a bare minimum of 15,328 grams (492.31 OZT) of gold gets buried with women in cemeteries in the US per year.

I'd guess closer to 25% go to the grave wearing a ring.

Which would bring it up to (492.31 x 25), or 12,307oz

rexmerdinus wrote:I think in a thousand years or so, our cemeteries of today will be proverbial gold mines!

After 1000 years it's no longer grave robbing. It's archaeology.

rexmerdinus wrote:Assume 50% of those are women, so 1,110,795.

Men wear wedding bands too.

After the 90% mass die off following TSHTF... I doubt there will be many concerned with enforcing the old laws.

True dat

However, I think your 10% survival rate is a tad optimistic

Morsecode wrote:True dat

However, I think your 10% survival rate is a tad optimistic

Well... let's see.... there's you... and me... and IdahoCopper... and 68Camaro... and we're all over at Nickelless's place going thru all his supplies. What percentage is that? Oh yeah, we have Deal doing perimeter patrol.

beauanderos wrote:Well... let's see.... there's you... and me... and IdahoCopper... and 68Camaro... and we're all over at Nickelless's place going thru all his supplies. What percentage is that? Oh yeah, we have Deal doing perimeter patrol.

And uthminsta praying for our souls as we loot.

Or we could skip the guys in Illinois more for the rest of US

Keep an eye on this one

Rosco wrote:Or we could skip the guys in Illinois more for the rest of US

No one is buried in Illinois. They are all kept in the democratic headquarters, so they can come out and vote every so often.

beauanderos wrote:Keep an eye on this one

Man she turns me on--gold or no gold

uthminsta wrote:

rexmerdinus wrote:Assume 50% of those are women, so 1,110,795.

Men wear wedding bands too.

I was trying to keep it simple, so I purposely didn't include men's bands because A) they're usually a lot larger; B) in terms of "treasure" they don't have stones set in them as often as womens' rings do; and C) they're more often made of something other than gold (mine is titanium).

beauanderos wrote:After the 90% mass die off following TSHTF... I doubt there will be many concerned with enforcing the old laws.

I was going to go there Then I figured there also wouldn't be too much interest in looting cemeteries anyway because of the abundance elsewhere, the work involved, and the simple need to survive.

I think its an interesting question since that gold is out of circulation and its not just the US, its every country in the world. I'll bet there are lots of wealthy Indians buried with some of their gold, every year, for thousands of years.

Regime change India, here we come.

uthminsta wrote:No one is buried in Illinois. They are all kept in the democratic headquarters, so they can come out and vote every so often.

This may be one of the greatest quotes ever made by anyone! I need to use this as I work in the state of Maryland and their politics follows this exact same process. Too Funny!

This seems like a situation waiting for an engineer to design effective tools. Hmmm... a core drill to go through 6' of dirt and bore into the casket, wood, bronze, etc. A tool like an endoscope with light and a gripper; maybe with a small metal detector attachment. Shouldn't be all that difficult to whip up.

IdahoCopper wrote:This seems like a situation waiting for an engineer to design effective tools. Hmmm... a core drill to go through 6' of dirt and bore into the casket, wood, bronze, etc. A tool like an endoscope with light and a gripper; maybe with a small metal detector attachment. Shouldn't be all that difficult to whip up.

you can buy one from Doc, he already invented it.

beauanderos wrote:

IdahoCopper wrote:This seems like a situation waiting for an engineer to design effective tools. Hmmm... a core drill to go through 6' of dirt and bore into the casket, wood, bronze, etc. A tool like an endoscope with light and a gripper; maybe with a small metal detector attachment. Shouldn't be all that difficult to whip up.

you can buy one from Doc, he already invented it.

The super remote control grave digger, mega driller, gold recovery, metal detector, Tooth Extractor.....with optional LED light attachment.

He calls it the SRCGDMDGRMDTE for short!!

Joking aside, grave robbers have been around for centuries. I can only imagine as technology as a whole improves, so do the methods of crooks and criminals. We will see where the future goes from here.

The OP has posed a very interesting question, and this has become a very interesting discussion. Running the numbers puts it in perspective.