This is a pretty cool ring, with an even cooler story to go along with it. From ebay:
1940 BALTIMORE FRATERNITY STERLING SKULL RING *UNUSUAL*
Here is a very unusual and possibly unique "Kappa Chapter, Phi Alpha Phi" fraternity ring from Baltimore, Maryland from 1940. Size is 8 1/2 and it weighs a hefty 19 grams. Inside is marked "STERLING" and the initials "SFB". On one side is the date 1940 and the other side shows the Maryland State Seal. On top is the design of a "skull" with small pearls around the center.
I know the history behind this ring. It was my dad's ring before he was married. He was 19 years old when he joined this fraternity in 1940. It is not a college ring....dad never finished high school. He worked at a tool manufacturing company in Baltimore that was eventually bought out by Black & Decker. Dad and a few of his friends joined the "workplace" fraternity....not knowing the top people who ran it. He made $6 a week and got a $1 a week raise for joining. Mom (his girlfriend then) told me he and his friends were excited about it....UNTIL dad did something that got him fired.
He booked a nearly unknown singer to sing at the fraternity dance. That is why he AND his friends were fired. That singer was Ella Fitzgerald. The top brass at the fraternity / company were bigots and one, a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Being caucasian, AND a lover of early jazz did my dad in at his first job. It did not deter him....on his honeymoon in New York City, he finally got to see Ella perform. Dad went on to work in the aircraft industry for 45 years.
He never wore the ring after 1941. When I was little I always liked the ring and asked why there was a "skull" on the ring. He told me it was a "light bulb" NOT a skull....and that it showed him the light. Mom told me the real story later in her life. I am selling it as a piece of Baltimore and human history. I have the memories and that is all I need. Dad died last October at the age of 89. I hope someone will give this ring a place in their life....