an old friend [since passed away] had actually bought the dies..

At first the rings were going to be 2 pieces. Both with the same band. The cartouche could have been replaced with either a Panzer type skull or,,SS runes..

The first generation rings had the cartouche in brass and had real black glass fired enamel ! So either design could have been pressed in to the band..
This did prove to be too costly after a few runs. So after a while they became one piece..

He was a bit of a neo nazi. He had solid gold SS rings made from the dies. Occasionally you will see them com up on the market.

Here are the original dies from the 50s/60s!!

zzzzsr_20131110_0001 (2).jpg (94.68 KB, 227 downloads)
zzzzsr_20131110_0001b.jpg (43.33 KB, 227 downloads)