Medusa Ring?

Is there such a thing as a Medusa ring? That was one of the first questions a few of us had as we viewed this ring last week. I stopped by the Middletown Historical Society Museum on Friday and was surprised and curious, as many of us were, about this ring pictured. Not much is known about this ring except as to who found it and where it was as.  Sean McMenamin a local resident and metal detector enthusiast, who also runs a group called Tri State Hunters here in Delaware.  While working on a piece of proper in Odessa, Delaware he came across this piece. He knows the property that he was working on dates back to 1782. He had spent many hours going over this property finding bottle caps, buttons even some coins but this was defiantly unique. That’s one of the reasons he stopped by to see if we had any thoughts on the piece. He did verify that it’s silver and the stone is jade and at one point it was sized because you could see the section on the back of the band.

The area in Odessa that he was searching was at one time believed to be the location of a tannery. There was an archaeological dig in the area but no proof of the tannery.  One of the other items found within the same area was a 1694 William & Mary copper coin.   He also shared that about 30 yards from the location of the ring was a 1662 Spanish 1 Reale Cob.  So I can’t help but wonder how long has that ring been there. It appears to me that they are two different faces; the hair is different on both faces and the size of the eyes and nose look different also. Now granted some of this could be from wear and tear but the direction of the hair is defiantly different on each face.

We have one member of our society who took a look at the photographs and believes it is Art Nouveau about 1885-1910. She does confirm that it is a female and often a “goddess”, “mermaid” or “woman in the wind” was common on some pieces of jewelry. 

Take a close look at it and let me know your thoughts, he is hoping to find out as much information as he can, quite honestly so am I. I'm attaching his YouTube video that was shot during this dig please feel free to view. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzalkCAmeYM