GUEST: My grandfather owned a jewelry store in a real small mining town, and it was a jewelry store/ pawn shop/ sporting goods store.

APPRAISER: Were they mining diamonds by any chance?

GUEST: No, the town mined millennium, it was in Leadville, Colorado. He passed away ten years ago, and this is one of the pieces that was in all of the things that he left for me. And he made this ring for you, you said? That was the story.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: I mean, I don't, I don't know.

APPRAISER: You have an Asscher-cut diamond ring. It's approximately five carats 20. It's a "G" color, VVS 2, very, very clean stone. And there is a mark in here. It wasn't made by your grandfather.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: It was made by a company called Birks. And they were a Canadian firm that worked around 1915, 1920. A very reputable firm, made some very nice jewelry. It's all set in platinum with pierced platinum work, sometimes called an open-work setting, and it has diamond shoulders on here, and it's typical of a ring produced around 1915, 1920. A phenomenal piece of jewelry. And we really find very, very, very few Asscher-cut stones. Certainly that color, that quality, and that size. Did you have any idea of the value of the ring?

GUEST: Not really, I mean... I've seen other rings in jewelry stores, but no, not really.

APPRAISER: Well, I'd say that if you were to walk into a retail store today and try and purchase a ring like this, it would easily cost you $165,000 to $175,000.

GUEST: Really? (chuckles) Okay.