4 minute read
How to engrave coordinates in a wedding ring
The place you met, the place you proposed or the place you married, written as a map reference inside the band. Here is how to find the numbers, how many decimals to keep and how to write them so they fit and read clearly.
How do I find the coordinates of a place?
Use any map app. In Google Maps on a computer, right click the spot and the latitude and longitude appear at the top of the menu. On a phone, press and hold the spot to drop a pin and the coordinates appear with it.
You get two numbers, such as 51.50735, -0.12776 for central London. The first is latitude, north or south of the equator. The second is longitude, east or west of Greenwich.
How many decimal places should I keep?
Four is plenty. One degree of latitude is about 111 kilometres, so each decimal place is ten times finer: three decimals pin a spot to about 110 metres, four to about 11 metres and five to about a metre. In Britain a degree of longitude is shorter, around 60 to 70 kilometres, so the east to west reading is finer still.
Four decimals finds the bench, the church door or the end of the pier. Three finds the park or the village green while saving two characters on each number.
Should I use N and W or a minus sign?
N, S, E and W. A map app writes west and south as minus numbers. A minus sign inside a ring is easy to miss or mistake for a dash. 51.5074 N 0.1278 W reads at once and takes 18 characters with the spaces.
Most of Britain lies west of Greenwich, so its longitude is W. East London, Kent and East Anglia are east of the line and take an E. Check the sign on your numbers before you change it into a letter.
Can I use the degree sign?
Leave it out. Decimal coordinates read clearly without it. Our engraving picture takes letters, numbers, spaces and simple punctuation but not the degree sign.
Degrees, minutes and seconds, the format with ° ′ and ″, run to about 24 characters for one place and need three symbols each time. Decimals say the same thing in fewer characters.
Can two places fit inside one ring?
Yes, at three decimals. 51.507N 0.128W 53.481N 2.243W, central London and central Manchester, is 29 characters, just inside the 30 our engraving box takes. On a slim band that is a lot of figures, so see how it sits before you order.
Where you met and where you married is the usual pair. One place at four decimals with initials beside it, such as 51.5074N 0.1278W A&J, also fits.
Personalised wedding ring ideas: Dates, names, fingerprints and words, inside and out.
How do I check the coordinates before they are cut?
Paste them back into the map app, written exactly as they will be engraved. Make sure the pin lands where you meant. A single swapped digit can move the spot by kilometres. An engraved ring cannot come back for a change of mind.
Then see them in the ring. Our free engraving picture shows the ring you choose turned to reveal your coordinates inside the band. The instant preview shows how much room they take at your width.
See your engraving: A picture of the ring with your coordinates inside, free.
See your engraving before you order: What to check in an engraving before it is cut.
Mentioned: titanium, black zirconium.
