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Industrial Strength

Some of the oddest manly jewelry you've never seen

attleboroPhoto: Timothy Valentine

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ttleboro was once a major jewelry manufacturing center, a legacy reflected in the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum, whose collection includes the world’s largest ring—the size 22 1/2 class ring designed for a husky Texas high school student in 1981; and the size 19-and-a-half Pro Football Hall of Fame ring presented to Chicago Bears fullback Bronko Nagurski in 1963. The average size of a man’s ring finger is 9 1/2. It’s in a onetime foundry that refined the scraps of precious metals left over from the jewelry-making process into almost 100 percent purity. The best secret: The museum is free.

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Among the manufacturers that have had, or still have, factories in Attleboro are button-maker Robinson Jones, a supplier to Fruit of the Loom, and Balfour Jewelry Company, which made your class ring.