Is this Martin Luther’s 500 year old ring?

Humbly submitted for your perusal.

I have an old signet ring, made of bronze and bearing Martin Luther’s coat of arms. I looked on the Internet and have found the following, The Lutheran Rose (also called Martin Luther’s Coat of Arms). In 1530, while Martin Luther was living at Coburg Castle, Prince John Frederick ordered a bronze signet ring as a gift for Luther. I was able to find Luther's doctoral ring and his wife’s wedding ring, but was unable to find just what the disposition of this bronze signet ring is.

I’ve had this ring for over twenty years, years before the Internet was so widely used. The first thing I did was to send pictures to Sotheby’s, their reply was “it was a simple armory ring and would start at about $2000 dollars at auction”.

I was wearing it one day when a guy I knew said, “ I know that symbol” he went and got a book and we looked it up and found it was the Lutheran Rose, also called, (Martin Luther’s Coat of Arms), when the internet came along I found that in 1530, while Martin Luther was living at Coburg Castle, Prince John Frederick ordered a bronze signet ring as a gift for Luther.

Another thing that is told in lore is that the ring was so big that Luther could only wear it on this thumb, this ring appears to have been sized, as it has what looks like a line of silver in the back.

Next, I understand this ring is what’s called a sand casting; first a wax model of the ring is made then placed in sand then the bronze or other metal is poured in.

The ring is missing the Eternal Circle of Life around the Masonic Rose, the Eternal Circle of Life was the last thing Martin Luther added to his Coat of Arms, and may be an indication in relationship to it’s age.

I’ve made three major e-mail campaigns trying to find out if I have Martin Luther ring, some of the answers I’ve gotten back range from “you have Martin Luther’s 500 year old ring! To, you made it yourself” as much as a complement as I find this to be it would take a skilled medieval artisan to craft such an amazing ring. The most plausible response in comparison to its likeliness I was getting back was it was a reproduction from the early 1700’s to around the 1920’s. Reproductions of this ring were very popular, so they say, but as much looking as I’ve done I’ve never seen another one like it.

Like a man on fire I went around and around with a museum curator who said Martin Luther would never own a bronze ring, he would only own a gold ring, rose gold works for me, he claimed to have all the paper work on this ring, but when it came right down to the nitty gritty said he couldn’t find it after six months of looking. (?)
I’ve had the metal tested and it’s what they call “Rose Gold” although it does have gold in it, it will definitely turn your finger green and I humbly submit to you that back in the day you could always tell a Lutheran my his green finger.

The way I came across this ring is I like small box’s, no that’s not right I love little box’s, I was at a flee market over in Germany and I happened across a small Jewelry Box, had to have it, and after some bartering it was mine, no sooner as I walk in my front door “fumbling with my keys” I drop it on the floor, when I pick it up I heard a rattling inside, after closer inspection I find a secret compartment, and inside the secret compartment I find the ring, the box had the Lutheran Rose carved on top and something written in Latin on it, on the inside were the initials (ML) and the date 1532. I like to think it went from Martin Luther’s finger to mine, and no one else in between.

Well that’s my story, any small morsel of information could be of the greatest help, I’d like to try to keep a headcount of everyone that views this, even if you don’t know anything at all about this ring, so could I ask you to go to the comment or question section and type in the date and time you viewed this, thanks.

Just about done.

A little on Martin Luther, he was the guy who broke away from the Catholic Church and started Protestantism. He was the one that translated the Bible from Latin and brought the written word to the masses, now I know this ring is not the Holy Grail but I think it should be in the top ten Religious Artifacts of the Christian Church.
Your help is greatly appreacheted in the effort to place this ring in its rightful place in history.

Kind regards to one and all.