Ronstar
Well-known member
Weather here finally broke from near three digit temps to 80 with rain showers today. jkline had a family birthday to do and I was not getting up at O-dark-30 to go out. So about 9:00 I went up to the University to maybe get two hours in. Of course it starts to rain around 10 so I text Jeff to tell him I had 80 cents to the positive. Ends up he too was out so miscommunication between us. He said he just got permission to do a Frat on Greek Row so I went to just talk to him and when I got there it stops raining. He asked me to join him as it might be just a one day window as the students are starting to come back.
I hit the lawn on the other side of the side walk and started getting numerous dime signals, almost by every square foot. I’ve never dug so many Memorials in such a small area and all were showing in the high dime numbers for me. When I finally get a dime it ended up being a 1951 Rosie so the Mems got excused. I must have had 20-25 pennies plus a bunch of stupid zincolns. I finished the smallish lawn area and Jeff motioned me over to his side and he crossed over to double check me.
I started down the front of the Frat house next to a stone/gravel path that led towards the side of the house. About 20 feet into the lawn I get a loud 92 that does not budge, not even when I moved 90 degrees. Dug down 5” and pull this circular twisty looking silver thing out and believe its a ring but nothing quite like Ive seen before. Just enough dirt on it cant really make out anything. Recheck the plug and move on. Bam, 90. Same thing, it just holds the number. Dig down 5” and pull up a slightly bent circular ring looking like thing. Ok….. finished up double checking on Jeff and he was finishing as well. Told him I might have two rings and that we should leave and meet up to see what we had. He also found a silver ring so off we went.
Met up and handed him the first ring, he looked it over and started calling me every non friendly four letter buddy words he could muster. Im standing there listening to him and then he said “Tiffany”. What??? Scramble for my loupe and sure enough “Tiffany & Co 925”. Damn, my first brand name silver jewelry. On the opposite side is a copyright mark and a name that first initials are P and P in the name but I can not the rest of the letters.
We examined the other ringy thingy and both of us thought it was maybe a grommet as the interior of the ring had a groove all the way around it. Surface also was semi pitted and looked like another base metal under the coating, threw it in the junk pocket. Jeff told me had not made over to the area yet that I found the rings. We then split ways.
Showed the wife when we got home and she goes “cool” so I know the Tiffany was impressive ….
. We got to talking and I said the grommet looked a lot like the ring. I went and got it and she commented it felt kinda heavy for an aluminum or metal grommet. So I took the toothbrush to it as the interior groove was jammed full of dirt. Still couldn’t get it all out so tried a toothpick which helped some. I could see letters stamped on the bottom of the groove that looked like STER. OK now, grab the brass brush and gently start using the bristles to clean the groove. Shock. Now I can read what looks like STERLING 925!!!!!! Grab loupe and confirm thats what it looks like!!!! I decided to see if I could get the letters to pop out a bit more so keep brushing the grooves. Finally I was able to read the letters under 20x “SMS/THAI 925”. Apparently its cheap silver but 925 is 925 and to think both Jeff and I thought it was junk.
Tiffany weighed 9.53 and the Thai is 3.82.
I hit the lawn on the other side of the side walk and started getting numerous dime signals, almost by every square foot. I’ve never dug so many Memorials in such a small area and all were showing in the high dime numbers for me. When I finally get a dime it ended up being a 1951 Rosie so the Mems got excused. I must have had 20-25 pennies plus a bunch of stupid zincolns. I finished the smallish lawn area and Jeff motioned me over to his side and he crossed over to double check me.
I started down the front of the Frat house next to a stone/gravel path that led towards the side of the house. About 20 feet into the lawn I get a loud 92 that does not budge, not even when I moved 90 degrees. Dug down 5” and pull this circular twisty looking silver thing out and believe its a ring but nothing quite like Ive seen before. Just enough dirt on it cant really make out anything. Recheck the plug and move on. Bam, 90. Same thing, it just holds the number. Dig down 5” and pull up a slightly bent circular ring looking like thing. Ok….. finished up double checking on Jeff and he was finishing as well. Told him I might have two rings and that we should leave and meet up to see what we had. He also found a silver ring so off we went.
Met up and handed him the first ring, he looked it over and started calling me every non friendly four letter buddy words he could muster. Im standing there listening to him and then he said “Tiffany”. What??? Scramble for my loupe and sure enough “Tiffany & Co 925”. Damn, my first brand name silver jewelry. On the opposite side is a copyright mark and a name that first initials are P and P in the name but I can not the rest of the letters.
We examined the other ringy thingy and both of us thought it was maybe a grommet as the interior of the ring had a groove all the way around it. Surface also was semi pitted and looked like another base metal under the coating, threw it in the junk pocket. Jeff told me had not made over to the area yet that I found the rings. We then split ways.
Showed the wife when we got home and she goes “cool” so I know the Tiffany was impressive ….
. We got to talking and I said the grommet looked a lot like the ring. I went and got it and she commented it felt kinda heavy for an aluminum or metal grommet. So I took the toothbrush to it as the interior groove was jammed full of dirt. Still couldn’t get it all out so tried a toothpick which helped some. I could see letters stamped on the bottom of the groove that looked like STER. OK now, grab the brass brush and gently start using the bristles to clean the groove. Shock. Now I can read what looks like STERLING 925!!!!!! Grab loupe and confirm thats what it looks like!!!! I decided to see if I could get the letters to pop out a bit more so keep brushing the grooves. Finally I was able to read the letters under 20x “SMS/THAI 925”. Apparently its cheap silver but 925 is 925 and to think both Jeff and I thought it was junk. Tiffany weighed 9.53 and the Thai is 3.82.
Congrats! Ma
