springsnrings
Jr. Member
I thought that I would share this with everyone on here since it's one of my best finds so far. Recently, I was doing some detecting on some land near the lake with my AT Pro and hit a pretty good signal around a target ID of 69-70. Naturally, I thought it would be something made of copper or maybe a large sinker since they usually go off in that range. When I dug it up, I noticed a red stone and quickly realized that what I found was an old class ring! After I wiped the dirt off of it, I found out it was from 1964 from a high school that has since been changed to a middle school. Since it was my first ring find, I was excited that it could be worth quite a bit but like many other detectorists I know (and many on here, I'm sure), I could NEVER keep something that belongs to someone else without finding the original owner first. So, I looked on the inside of the ring to see if I could find a name, but all I could see was the name of the company that made the ring and the initials "RES" engraved on the inside.
So, my next step was to find a yearbook from the school of the Class of '64. Fortunately, after taking to social media, I found a man nearby who had one and volunteered to let me look through it. I knew it had to be a man's ring since it was WAY too big for a woman. After looking through the yearbook, I found only ONE man who had the initials RS. His name in the yearbook was Ronnie Seaman and he had transferred to the school from a nearby city. So, my next step was to find Ron's current whereabouts. I began my search and turned up a man that I was positive could be him since he was 69 years old and from an area nearby. However, I got into contact with his wife and found out that Ron Seaman had moved here as an adult and graduated high school from another state. So, the search went cold.
The only thing I could do from this point was to create a post on social media with the only picture I had of Ron (the one from the yearbook) and asked people to share it to help me in my search. The post got tons of shares and information came in about how people knew Ron, but didn't know where he lived. A class reunion organizer said that Ron had never showed up for class reunions and she didn't know of a current address or contact information. At this point, I was under the assumption that it was possible I would not find Ron or that he had passed away.
A couple of weeks passed and I didn't get any more information. Then, I got an email one day from a Ron Seaman who said "I've gotten information that you may have found an old class ring of mine. If you could send me pictures, I could verify if it is indeed my ring". Now, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure A LOT of you guys know that's a little fishy. So, I wrote him back and told him if he could verify some things about the ring or something on the inside or outside that I wouldn't mind to send pictures, but I didn't want to do it immediately since I wanted to be sure I was giving it back to the right owner. His wife got into contact with me on social media and gave me his contact information, so I decided to give this guy a call to see if he was the real deal or not.
When he answered the phone, I introduced myself and started asking some questions about the ring. One of the first things that he said to me was "I was pretty sure I lost that thing near the lake!" and that was VERY telling to me since I never disclosed the location of where I found the ring at the time. So, I inquired for more information about the ring and he said "The lake is where we would go to skip school! I graduated in 1964 and darn if I didn't lose that thing a week after I bought it! I can't really tell you much of what was on it since I didn't own it for very long. But, I'm pretty sure it had my initials inside the ring: RES or RS or something". Just by the way this guy was talking, it was obvious this was his ring. He had information about it that no one could have figured out otherwise and I asked him more about the history of the ring. He said "I used to mow yards for $3 a yard to help pay for that ring! It was around $135 when I bought it and I only had it about a week before losing it!". The craziest part is that he doesn't live in Tennessee anymore, he moved to a town in Florida years ago which is 500 miles away from where I found the ring!
Ron was very ecstatic and amazed that someone would go through the trouble that I went through to find him and return his ring. He told me "Let me tell you something, there aren't many people in this world who would do what you have done to return that ring back to me. You have brought back so many memories that I had just forgotten by telling me about that ring. It's taken me back in time!". Ron has offered to give me a reward for my troubles in locating him and we are set to meet in person in the next couple of months. Since the story got out, two local news stations have covered the story and I have an interview with a newspaper on Tuesday. This isn't the oldest find that I found since I have been detecting, but I consider it by far the best find I have ever found since the happiness I brought to this 69 year old man is priceless. =)
If you want to read the story, you can follow these links:
East Tennessee man finds class ring lost for 50 years, seeks out owner | WATE 6 On Your Side
51 years later, missing ring to be reunited with owner
Also, this is the picture of the ring I found:
So, my next step was to find a yearbook from the school of the Class of '64. Fortunately, after taking to social media, I found a man nearby who had one and volunteered to let me look through it. I knew it had to be a man's ring since it was WAY too big for a woman. After looking through the yearbook, I found only ONE man who had the initials RS. His name in the yearbook was Ronnie Seaman and he had transferred to the school from a nearby city. So, my next step was to find Ron's current whereabouts. I began my search and turned up a man that I was positive could be him since he was 69 years old and from an area nearby. However, I got into contact with his wife and found out that Ron Seaman had moved here as an adult and graduated high school from another state. So, the search went cold.
The only thing I could do from this point was to create a post on social media with the only picture I had of Ron (the one from the yearbook) and asked people to share it to help me in my search. The post got tons of shares and information came in about how people knew Ron, but didn't know where he lived. A class reunion organizer said that Ron had never showed up for class reunions and she didn't know of a current address or contact information. At this point, I was under the assumption that it was possible I would not find Ron or that he had passed away.
A couple of weeks passed and I didn't get any more information. Then, I got an email one day from a Ron Seaman who said "I've gotten information that you may have found an old class ring of mine. If you could send me pictures, I could verify if it is indeed my ring". Now, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure A LOT of you guys know that's a little fishy. So, I wrote him back and told him if he could verify some things about the ring or something on the inside or outside that I wouldn't mind to send pictures, but I didn't want to do it immediately since I wanted to be sure I was giving it back to the right owner. His wife got into contact with me on social media and gave me his contact information, so I decided to give this guy a call to see if he was the real deal or not.
When he answered the phone, I introduced myself and started asking some questions about the ring. One of the first things that he said to me was "I was pretty sure I lost that thing near the lake!" and that was VERY telling to me since I never disclosed the location of where I found the ring at the time. So, I inquired for more information about the ring and he said "The lake is where we would go to skip school! I graduated in 1964 and darn if I didn't lose that thing a week after I bought it! I can't really tell you much of what was on it since I didn't own it for very long. But, I'm pretty sure it had my initials inside the ring: RES or RS or something". Just by the way this guy was talking, it was obvious this was his ring. He had information about it that no one could have figured out otherwise and I asked him more about the history of the ring. He said "I used to mow yards for $3 a yard to help pay for that ring! It was around $135 when I bought it and I only had it about a week before losing it!". The craziest part is that he doesn't live in Tennessee anymore, he moved to a town in Florida years ago which is 500 miles away from where I found the ring!
Ron was very ecstatic and amazed that someone would go through the trouble that I went through to find him and return his ring. He told me "Let me tell you something, there aren't many people in this world who would do what you have done to return that ring back to me. You have brought back so many memories that I had just forgotten by telling me about that ring. It's taken me back in time!". Ron has offered to give me a reward for my troubles in locating him and we are set to meet in person in the next couple of months. Since the story got out, two local news stations have covered the story and I have an interview with a newspaper on Tuesday. This isn't the oldest find that I found since I have been detecting, but I consider it by far the best find I have ever found since the happiness I brought to this 69 year old man is priceless. =)
If you want to read the story, you can follow these links:
East Tennessee man finds class ring lost for 50 years, seeks out owner | WATE 6 On Your Side
51 years later, missing ring to be reunited with owner
Also, this is the picture of the ring I found:
He should be in the area in about 2-3 months. 
Great story, the best part of returning is history of the loss and there reaction to .. VN!
