Biggest ring I ever found.....Twice !!!!!

[Donna(NJ]

Over the years I have attempted to return all class rings to their rightful owners. Only had1 person who didnt want it back.
Person said 'What am I going to do with it now !!!! I did my due diligence

Now here's the story of this one. Its a monster weighing at 26 grams. Its a Championship ring for college baseball.
It had the guys same on it. I looked him up on Facebood and connected with him. Unfortunately, he was at a sports bar and
wasnt quite alert !!!! He said he'd call me back. I didnt have caller ID back then. I never heard from him for over a year.
One day I get a call from him. For some reason, I couldnt find the ring. Looked everywhere. I usually leave the returns on the windowsill
as a follow up reminder. Looked everywhere, no ring. Then last year, I had new flooring put in my family room. Guess what was under the couch !!!
I tried to connect on FB but because we werent friends, I couldnt send a msg. Long story short, I finally got a hold of him on messenger. He's a very happy camper.
The rings was made of some new metal and no real value except to the owner. It was a great feeling to find the ring and finally return it.

Most of my friends will not retuen rings. Finders keepers..... But I always say, I have plenty of gold rings and it will mean more to the owner than me.

HH
Donna(NJ)

 

[bigtim1973]

Very nice ending Donna!! And very nice that you try and return rings too!

 

[fwcrawford]

Great find and story Donna!
I have only found one class ring while metal detecting, but was able to get it back it’s owner after being lost for 22 years.
She had fallen on bad times and was very happy to get the ring back.
She said she paid for it herself when she got it.
Only other one I have ever found was when I was about 10 years old and spotted it laying on top of the ground while playing in a local school yard.
Lost track of it for many years and discovered it in my Mom’s jewelry box after she passed about 15 years ago.
I tried to find the owner, but did not have any luck.

 

[Sand Sifter]

Over the years I have attempted to return all class rings to their rightful owners. Only had1 person who didnt want it back.
Person said 'What am I going to do with it now !!!! I did my due diligence

Now here's the story of this one. Its a monster weighing at 26 grams. Its a Championship ring for college baseball.
It had the guys same on it. I looked him up on Facebood and connected with him. Unfortunately, he was at a sports bar and
wasnt quite alert !!!! He said he'd call me back. I didnt have caller ID back then. I never heard from him for over a year.
One day I get a call from him. For some reason, I couldnt find the ring. Looked everywhere. I usually leave the returns on the windowsill
as a follow up reminder. Looked everywhere, no ring. Then last year, I had new flooring put in my family room. Guess what was under the couch !!!
I tried to connect on FB but because we werent friends, I couldnt send a msg. Long story short, I finally got a hold of him on messenger. He's a very happy camper.
The rings was made of some new metal and no real value except to the owner. It was a great feeling to find the ring and finally return it.

Most of my friends will not retuen rings. Finders keepers..... But I always say, I have plenty of gold rings and it will mean more to the owner than me.

HH
Donna(NJ)

Great find & story Donna. MUCHO respect to you for tracking down the owner & setting up the return!! I found a girl's 2012 HS ring at the end of July in 2012, so she had recently lost it. Her name was engraved so I contacted the school, and they reached out to her. A couple days later, her mom called me, so we set a time to meet up at their hotel. The smile on her face totally made my day! She had just received the ring a few months before and lost it when she came down to the beach on Spring Break. Her mom was exceedingly happy, as I'm sure that ring probably cost her a few hundred $. I was happy just seeing all the happy faces and smiles, but her mom came over and handed me a $50 bill. I protested but she insisted, so I respectfully took the $50.

After we left, we went down to Main St so the wife & her sister could go into some stores. At one store, her sister came out and asked me to come in to see the dress my wife found. It was a light material dress with native American design. My wife just loved that dress, so I asked her how much? She replied, $50, so I grabbed the dress, walked up to the counter, and handed over the $50 bill I just received. Wife said, "you didn't have to do that". I replied, yes, I did, because honey, you are my real treasure. Wife was extremely happy, and later that night, I was ahem, extremely happy as well, lol. So, it was definitely a win-win for all.

BUT from a metal detecting standpoint, returning that ring proved very valuable to me because it proved a theory I had about objects moving in ocean waters. I've seen posts from some guys that swear objects stay in the sand where they were dropped. I always thought that was BS, because the ocean tosses me around like a rag doll, so would have no problem moving and tossing a several gram ring, but it was just my theory up until I found this HS ring. The year on the ring was 2012, I had found it late in July 2012, so obviously, she had just received the ring before losing. So, during our conversation, I asked the girl if she lost it on Spring Break, she replied yes. Then I mentioned the beach where I found her ring and she gave me a confused look. She said she wasn't at that beach; she was at another beach when she lost it, and that beach is about 10 miles south of the beach where I found it. So, in just a couple/few months, that ring travelled 10 miles from the beach where she lost it, to get to the beach where I found it.

And for proof, check out the pics I've attached. The ring was only a couple months old. If it dropped down into the sand and didn't move, it would have looked almost brand new, the gold would be shiny, etc. But take a look at the pics and to my eyes, it's obvious the ring had been through hell, looks like it's been in the water for 50 years, all scratched, discolored & pitted. That confirmed my theory because the only way that 2-3 month-old ring could look that bad was if it had tumbled through the sand, shells, rocks, while it travelled those 10 miles. The condition of the ring is consistent with an object that was tumbled in the sand and thrown about by the water. So, for me, that confirmed that targets lost in the ocean do indeed move, but I wouldn't have been able to confirm my theory if I hadn't returned the ring.

 

[Donna(NJ]

Great find & story Donna. MUCHO respect to you for tracking down the owner & setting up the return!! I found a girl's 2012 HS ring at the end of July in 2012, so she had recently lost it. Her name was engraved so I contacted the school, and they reached out to her. A couple days later, her mom called me, so we set a time to meet up at their hotel. The smile on her face totally made my day! She had just received the ring a few months before and lost it when she came down to the beach on Spring Break. Her mom was exceedingly happy, as I'm sure that ring probably cost her a few hundred $. I was happy just seeing all the happy faces and smiles, but her mom came over and handed me a $50 bill. I protested but she insisted, so I respectfully took the $50.

After we left, we went down to Main St so the wife & her sister could go into some stores. At one store, her sister came out and asked me to come in to see the dress my wife found. It was a light material dress with native American design. My wife just loved that dress, so I asked her how much? She replied, $50, so I grabbed the dress, walked up to the counter, and handed over the $50 bill I just received. Wife said, "you didn't have to do that". I replied, yes, I did, because honey, you are my real treasure. Wife was extremely happy, and later that night, I was ahem, extremely happy as well, lol. So, it was definitely a win-win for all.

BUT from a metal detecting standpoint, returning that ring proved very valuable to me because it proved a theory I had about objects moving in ocean waters. I've seen posts from some guys that swear objects stay in the sand where they were dropped. I always thought that was BS, because the ocean tosses me around like a rag doll, so would have no problem moving and tossing a several gram ring, but it was just my theory up until I found this HS ring. The year on the ring was 2012, I had found it late in July 2012, so obviously, she had just received the ring before losing. So, during our conversation, I asked the girl if she lost it on Spring Break, she replied yes. Then I mentioned the beach where I found her ring and she gave me a confused look. She said she wasn't at that beach; she was at another beach when she lost it, and that beach is about 10 miles south of the beach where I found it. So, in just a couple/few months, that ring travelled 10 miles from the beach where she lost it, to get to the beach where I found it.

And for proof, check out the pics I've attached. The ring was only a couple months old. If it dropped down into the sand and didn't move, it would have looked almost brand new, the gold would be shiny, etc. But take a look at the pics and to my eyes, it's obvious the ring had been through hell, looks like it's been in the water for 50 years, all scratched, discolored & pitted. That confirmed my theory because the only way that 2-3 month-old ring could look that bad was if it had tumbled through the sand, shells, rocks, while it travelled those 10 miles. The condition of the ring is consistent with an object that was tumbled in the sand and thrown about by the water. So, for me, that confirmed that targets lost in the ocean do indeed move, but I wouldn't have been able to confirm my theory if I hadn't returned the ring.

10 miles is a long distance in 2-3 months !!! What was the composition of the ring ???

Donna

 

[Sand Sifter]

10 miles is a long distance in 2-3 months !!! What was the composition of the ring ???

Donna

10K Gold. 10 miles sounded far to me, but I was able to prove that it could be done. During an episode of Treasure Talk, Mark Padduck shared his story about a guy that had just lost his ABC ring at the O.C. Inlet. Mark went out to look for the ring, based on where the man said he lost it, but wasn't able to find. 3 days later, Mark was speaking with a buddy of his, and his friend mentioned that he found the man's ring, but the beach where he found it was 13 blocks north of the O.C. Inlet. I used the measurements of that ring traveling 13 blocks in 2-3 days, and based on how fast & the distance that ring travelled, the numbers worked out that the ring could have travelled the 10 miles to the beach where I found it in about 1 - 1.5 months, so the timing fit perfectly.

Later on the same Treasure Talk episode, another hunter mentioned reading a story about a guy who found a HS ring & tracked down the owner. The ring had been lost for 50 years, and the beach where the guy found the ring was 50 miles from where the guy lost the ring. So, that ring travelled 50 miles in 50 years, lol. In addition, I was watching a video of Terry Shannon being interviewed, and he came right out and said that objects do move in the water, as he's made a lot of his better finds IN-BETWEEN beaches, so the targets had to move from the beach where they were lost, to where Terry found them in the deserted beach areas we typically see in-between beaches.

 

[Donna(NJ]

10K Gold. 10 miles sounded far to me, but I was able to prove that it could be done. During an episode of Treasure Talk, Mark Padduck shared his story about a guy that had just lost his ABC ring at the O.C. Inlet. Mark went out to look for the ring, based on where the man said he lost it, but wasn't able to find. 3 days later, Mark was speaking with a buddy of his, and his friend mentioned that he found the man's ring, but the beach where he found it was 13 blocks north of the O.C. Inlet. I used the measurements of that ring traveling 13 blocks in 2-3 days, and based on how fast & the distance that ring travelled, the numbers worked out that the ring could have travelled the 10 miles to the beach where I found it in about 1 - 1.5 months, so the timing fit perfectly.

Later on the same Treasure Talk episode, another hunter mentioned reading a story about a guy who found a HS ring & tracked down the owner. The ring had been lost for 50 years, and the beach where the guy found the ring was 50 miles from where the guy lost the ring. So, that ring travelled 50 miles in 50 years, lol. In addition, I was watching a video of Terry Shannon being interviewed, and he came right out and said that objects do move in the water, as he's made a lot of his better finds IN-BETWEEN beaches, so the targets had to move from the beach where they were lost, to where Terry found them in the deserted beach areas we typically see in-between beaches.

The ring I found was lost in the same area the guy told me. Dont recall how long it was lost before I found it, It did have rust on it which I cleaned up,
We have a lot of jetties between beaches which I believe impeads movement. My hometown beach is a vacation mecca and gets a big crowd, I have hunted south
of this beach and have found little to nothing. All depends on the currents.

Also, while trying to find items people have lost, I have found they dont realize they lost the item till way far from the drop. So maybe the the 'I lost it here' is not very accurate.
Case in point. Hunting a school yard and a guy ask me if my machine will find keys ??? Sure. I proceed to search for the keys. After awhile I look up and the guy is gone !!!
If he cant bother then neither can I. I decided to go across the street to the HS. Guess what, there were the keys on the walk to the gym !!!!

Im not saying things dont travel, as an engineer did explain it to me. But I havent knowingly found anything very far from the source..
On a much sadder note. There's always a drowning almost every year. I never go to the beach until the body has been found. One year the girl was found several miles south.
but that was a floater.

All that counts is the ring was found and returned to the rightful owner.

WTG
Donna

 

[Sand Sifter]

The ring I found was lost in the same area the guy told me. Dont recall how long it was lost before I found it, It did have rust on it which I cleaned up,
We have a lot of jetties between beaches which I believe impeads movement. My hometown beach is a vacation mecca and gets a big crowd, I have hunted south
of this beach and have found little to nothing. All depends on the currents.

Also, while trying to find items people have lost, I have found they dont realize they lost the item till way far from the drop. So maybe the the 'I lost it here' is not very accurate.
Case in point. Hunting a school yard and a guy ask me if my machine will find keys ??? Sure. I proceed to search for the keys. After awhile I look up and the guy is gone !!!
If he cant bother then neither can I. I decided to go across the street to the HS. Guess what, there were the keys on the walk to the gym !!!!

Im not saying things dont travel, as an engineer did explain it to me. But I havent knowingly found anything very far from the source..
On a much sadder note. There's always a drowning almost every year. I never go to the beach until the body has been found. One year the girl was found several miles south.
but that was a floater.

All that counts is the ring was found and returned to the rightful owner.

WTG
Donna

Hey Donna, I mentioned these guys in my previous post, but I found the video you can watch and hear their stories about objects dropped in the ocean moving for yourself. I'm pasting a link for a Treasure Talk weekly treasure hunting report video. Mark Paddack was the representative for DE, MD, & VA, and would give a report on beach detecting conditions every week. On this video, Mark Paddack & another guy talk about finding rings in areas far away from where they were lost.

In Mark's case, he tried to find an ABC 300 (bowler's ring for a 300 game) ring for a guy who lost it at the OC Inlet right after the guy lost it but was unsuccessful. About 2-3 days later, Mark was talking to a buddy who actually found the ABC 300 ring Mark was looking for, but where he found the ring was 13 blocks north of where it was lost. The other guy, Rick, mention that he read a story in a Western & Eastern Treasure magazine about a hunter who found a ring, got in touch with the guy who lost it, and turned out the guy lost the ring 50 years prior and 50 miles north from where it was found.

To hear Mark's story, fast forward the video to 17:30.
To hear Rick's story, also on the same video, fast forward to 1:29:18.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gRDtf8EqIU&t=5413s

Lastly, the Legend himself, Terry Shannon, also confirmed my previous theory (now proven fact), that objects do indeed move in the water. This is a video that Merrill from Metal Detecting NYC did with Terry, while he was down in Florida representing XP at an event that Terry was also attending. Merrill was fortunate to be able to do an impromptu interview with Terry, and during the interview, Terry also confirmed that objects do move in the ocean.

Note: I don't remember exactly where in the video that Terry mentions objects moving so I don't have a time stamp. BUT this is a video that I HIGHLY recommend watching from start to finish. I watched this video multiple times and took notes. Trust me Donna, Terry drops some incredible nuggets in the video, but ya really need to be paying attention to pick up on them. He never comes right out and says "here's a tip". He'll just casually drop golden nuggets very casually during his conversation. Most hunters might not even pick up on or recognize that he's dropping golden nuggets, but experienced hunters will feel the lightbulb going off several times in this video. IIRC, I think I picked up 4 or 5 excellent tips from his conversation.

AND not only did he confirm that objects do move in the water, but he also confirmed another theory I've had brewing in my mind for the last dozen or so years. This tip that he casually mentioned ties directly in with objects moving in water. Ever go to a crowded beach and look to the right and left of the main section, and see desolate beach where nobody sunbathes? Or maybe only surf fishermen will be on those sections. Well, this tip confirmed my theory and is a direct result of objects moving in the water. Hint: Listen for when Terry says, "I've made some of my best finds IN-BETWEEN beaches".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kSTNi5J51c&t=43s

So, between me, Terry, Mark, and Rick, there's 4 beach hunters right there that confirm that objects dropped in ocean water do indeed move based on tides, currents, winds, storms, etc.

 

[Odanscoils]

Donna
Those are my absolute favorite stories.
Thanks for posting.