Help With Platinum Wedding Ring Recovery

[Willy_MN]

Hello All,
A group that I detect with has been contacted to help recover a woman's platinum wedding band that
was lost in their yard. The wife, who's ring we will be looking for, has terminal cancer and is desperately
wanting to get her ring back as soon as possible. I know rings can hit all over the place, but are there
any pointers for general areas of the smart find or digital to keep an eye on? The ring has been lost for
about six weeks, so we don't anticipate it being buried too deep. They have also saved the grass
clippings from the mowings since it was lost.

Also, any other tips for setting up an SE for this type of recovery? Any help is appreciated -- it would
be great to be able to get the ring back to her.

Thanks in advance,
Willy

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi, My wedding band is platinum from Tiffany's - I'll find it tonight (I don't like wearing rings) and scan it with my X-1 on my SE and give you the digital readout if you'd like and describe the general area of the screen where it hits. Let me know if this will help.

 

[Willy_MN]

That would be great, Erik -- thanks. It would mean a lot to us to be able to get this back to her.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Will do .... I'll post something here after 9PM EDT tonight - I'll ask my wife if she's got any platinum rings too.

 

[Willy_MN]

Thanks again, Erik!

 

[grumpyolman]

I hope you know about setting up a Grid for searching. It'd help if it was highly visible to all the hunters like yellow contractor's string. And...search it from all directions.
I've done a bit of this recovery stuff, and a majority of the time the article ends up not being lost where they said they lost it. If you can gently 'interview' where the person was a little before and a little after they noticed the loss and check those areas too I think it will incease you chances of a recovery. Jim
Remembered another search technique. Give all the hunters the long wooden golf tees and have each person mark where they heard a target. Don't dig a thing until the area has been hunted and then look where most of the Ts are. Methodically recover those with the most T's first.
I'd search all metal with a low sensitivity setting and ignore stuff that was deep.

 

[John(Tx)]

n/t

 

[Erik in NJ]

Cursor is approx 1/8" higher than where it would be for a modern nickel....maybe 1/3 of the way up the screen. Hope this helps!

 

[Lost&Found]

Willy,

I posted this response to your post elsewhere, but here it is again.

Platinum has zero ferrous content, and very low conductivity. That would put it in the lower right corner of your graphic display.

Good Luck,
Mike
(Explorer SE)

 

[chipmonky]

This one hit just above where pull tabs come on smart screen on explorer 2

allot depends on the ring size and shape
if dropped recent should be easy to find wont be more than 1/4inch deep

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Expect a low reading in the foil area, only dig shallow at best but could have been stepped on and not visible.Gosh if that grasscutter hit it just right might be in the neighbors yard unfortunately. Last but not least having found 6-7 gold rings over the years only once found where the person thought it was lost so the whole yard should be scoured...
If the person drives check out the front seat of the vehicle before you pull out your detector...I like the idea of gridding the yard also to cover it completely...

 

[grumpyolman]

My neigbor asked me to help find a gold stick pin that he 'saw' fall off his tie, after church, in a grass area 3'X20'. I searched that area for an hour and found nothing except trash. I apoligized for not finding such an easy recovery because he saw where it fell. A couple days later he stopped over to tell me he had found the stick pin. It was on the floorboards in the front seat of his car.
That advice to search the front seat of the car has some merit. Jim

 

[mike-t]

I helped a lady find a ring in her yard.to cut down on time ask if she can show the area roughly where she was when the ring was lost.I asked this because the lady i helped showed me the area she was when she lost her ring.I at first did not find the ring.She had me check almost the whole yard.Then i thought to go back to spot she showed me first.she was pulling vines off her tree.I expained the search area by three feet,found ring.

 

[Erik in NJ]

n/t

 

[dippodigger]

How did this turn out? Any luck?

 

[sangamon]

...or are you just bragging?

 

[Erik in NJ]

Just bragging No seriously, I noticed a big difference in the Ferrous numbers of two other platinum rings made by two different jewelers (Fer=19/Cond=06 vs. Fer=09/Cond=09)....I would have expected a change in the Conductive numbers, but much less of a change in the Ferrous. I'm assuming that Tiffany's would use a good grade of platinum and I'm not familiar with platinum grading so I posted the maker as a reference point.....but thanks for keeping me on my toes!

 

[Willy_MN]

Thanks for all the tips folks. The hunt didn't go down this past weekend -- we will be searching for it this Friday or Sunday.
We will have four or five searchers and will be gridding the entire yard. I'll keep everyone posted as to how we do.

Thanks again,
Willy

 

[silverfix]

Willy let us know if your group has any luck.

 

[Willy_MN]

We had nine people show up to assist in the search -- which was great to see -- but didn't
come up with the find. Our general consensus is that it is probably in the house somewhere.
We did search their vehicles and gave them a lot of pointers for places to search in the house.

Such a kind and pleasant woman -- and so sick -- it was very difficult to call the search off. Thanks
again for all of the pointers. We were able to check a similar ring prior to hunting and it came up
just a hair straight up from a modern nickel on the smart find screen -- thanks Erik, your advice
was right on the money.

On a side note, the house was built in 1880 by a very prominent railroad executive. There has
been very little fill brought in around the house and there are some dandy, deeper signals there.
Very hard to resist the temptation to cut a plug.....LOL!

Thanks again,
Willy