Rings 4 U

One of the few situations in which men and women wear the same size of something is with their rings. In this case identical finger sizes wear identical ring sizes regardless of gender. But, I did a little research and found that ring sizes vary around the globe. Here is an International Chart. To find out your own ring size go here.

There are several different schools of thought. We will observe the Americans the Brits and the Japanese. The Americans and the Japanese use number systems but the Brits use a lettering system…sort of.

As far as the numbers are concerned Americans, have a ring we identify as a size 2. The Japanese also refer to that size as a number 2. The Brits say it is a size D. This would suggest that we are closely aligned with the Japanese but if all of this made sense there would be no reason to discuss it.

When the Americans refer to a ring as a size 4 ½ the Japanese call it an 8, and the Brits come in at the letter I. Now it appears that we are progressing up the number scale at about the same rate the Brits move up the alphabet and the Japanese are employing some progressive number system. But the Brits have the strangest system of all.

As sizes get progressively bigger, their whole-sizes and their half-sizes are assigned the next letter in the alphabet, but the quarter sizes and their three-quarter sizes are identified as a fraction; but, NOT THE CORRECT FRACTION. All of the quarter sizes are referred to as half sizes (you might have to read that again). So let’s look at a chain of sizes and see how things work out. Americans might refer to a series of smaller rings as sizes 3, 3 ¼, 3 ½, 3 ¾, and 4. The Brits call those sizes F, F ½, G, G ½, H.

Look at that closely and you will see what I mean when I say the quarter-sizes are referred to as half-sizes. Oddly, the one size that really is a half-size (G) does not have the fraction behind it. It is just a whole letter. That is goofy. Now all of that is strange enough but it makes me wonder why they use both letters and numbers in the first place. Couldn’t they just pick one or the other? If they want to use letters, the quarter-sizes could have been identified with a lower case q and the half sizes and the three-quarter sizes could have been identified with a lower cast t. Then that string of sizes would look like this: F, Fq, G, Gt, H. I suppose they must have thought of that, but I still think it is weird to refer to all fractions as ½.

I noticed one other ironic twist with ring sizes. My own ring size is a 7 ¼, which is almost the exact same size as my hat. That would suggest that I can wear my hat on my finger and my ring as a hat. If I walked into a room dressed like that people would think I am a nut. In fact you might even call me that just for thinking these thoughts and writing this article.

Oh well, I told you this measurements and sizes stuff is amusing.

More to come

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Super Expensive celebrity engagement rings.

As always, we love to hear your stories about sizes and rings.

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