TulsaPllTbFndr
Jr. Member
I started metal detecting in the summer of 2011. It wouldn't be until seven years later in the sizzling heat of a summer day in 2018 that I would find my first piece of gold. Not complaining - just didn't think it would take that long. But believe me when I say, that long wait made the final arrival of my first gold all the sweeter. The circumstances of the find and the subsequent ring return made it an even more memorable day. I found my first piece of gold completely unexpectedly then located and returned it to the original owner in less than five minutes after finding it. A metal detecting emotional rollercoaster.
I was out with my friend Steve-O metal detecting his mom and step dad's house where we had detected a time or two before a couple of years prior. The house was built about 1915 and sat on a sizeable corner lot. The couple of times we had hunted it before we encountered high trash content in the soil and none of us at the time were using small coils so the digs were slightly handicapped. However, we still were able to pull a few goodies. I think we dug a few wheats and somebody got some suspender pieces. I had also pulled an 1890s Barber dime from the side yard. We had been encouraged by that and decided we would revisit the yard on a rainy day when we were out of other sites to hunt. Turns out our rainy day was sunny with about a 100 degree heat-index but we were determined to get a couple of hours of swinging in. This time I was using my Garrett AT Pro with the Garrett Super Sniper coil. Steve-O was swinging the Ace250 or 350 - can't remember. We had no real expectations and were looking for nothing particular. We just wanted to see what we might have missed with the bigger coils in the previous hunts.
We started in the front and worked it pretty hard. Steve-O got off to a good start and popped a couple of wheats early on. It wasn't long and I pulled a merc out of what use to be an old garden along the front sidewalk. Steve-O's mom brought us a couple of ice waters to cool us off. As before, she had told us to keep whatever we find so long as we let her see it first(if it was cool). We showed her our loot and she congratulated us and went back inside. By this time we were both already completely soaked through our shirts with sweat. There was no shade in the front so we decided it was time to migrate to the shaded, but incredibly trashy-signaled, back yard to wrap up the hunt. We both kind of drifted towards the smaller detached addition to the house in the back corner of the backyard. Lots of can slaw, pull tabs, stinkin' zincolns, Hotwheels, etc. Since the zincs were out of control I started ignoring a lot of the iffy high tones - which ruled out most of the high tones back there. I got bored and decided to hunt only nickel signals. I wasn't doing that to try and find gold - I was doing it to find nickels, haha. Remember, this is seven years into detecting without gold; it was the furthest thing from my mind. I went over to a large tree nearby that had some big low-hanging branches. "We use to have a hammock right there." Steve-O said, digging a plug a few feet right of me. "Oh yeah?" I replied. "Bet this is a decent spot for some dropped clad" I thought to myself as I moved more directly into the location Steve-O had indicated. The first signal was a solid mid tone that was locked onto a 52 in every direction at about 2 inches down. "Got a nickel right here for sure." I said aloud to Steve-O who was still working a plug next to me. When my AT Pro locks onto a 52 and won't budge it's a guaranteed nickel. Almost without exception. I knelt down and stuck my Lesche in the soil just behind the target area and pried upwards. Out of the dirt a flash of brilliant yellow erupted. I knew instantly. Finally! It wasn't a cat food can lid, it wasn't an off-color pull tab, it wasn't gold tinted can slaw, it wasn't the screw cap ring from an Olde English - it was a RING ring! Gold! There was no initial apprehension this time as in previous gold-plate scares. It was so brilliant and flawless. So smooth and clean. The weight was good. I just knew.
I said nothing in those first few seconds of rapturous marvel. I pushed my finger through the middle and spun the ring around a rotation or two to clean out the dirt. I pulled my finger out and held it up in the light. "14K" it read! If there was any doubt at all it was completely extinguished right then and there. "Dude. I just found a gold ring in your parent's yard. Seriously. It's a real gold ring" I was in such shock I was downright catatonic. I had the "thousand-yard stare" of the treasure hunting world. Steve-O, not one for hysterics, swiveled on his knees from his position to the right of me, looked at me, and just smiled real big. He was a few feet away from me and I had the ring closed tightly in my fist so he couldn't see it. "Wait, does it happen to have two hands holding a crown or a heart or something?" He said as he crawled over to me, still smiling. I was shocked. He had, indeed, just described the ring I was holding still clenched in my fist. "How did you know that?" I asked. "I think my mom lost that ring a long time ago. It was something my step dad bought for her." We both just kind of stayed there kneeling and staring down at it in my hand. After a few snaps with my phone's camera I stood up, "Well, let's go give it back to her!" We left our machines and trotted up to the back door like two scheming little boys who just caught a snake that was going to be used to scare the poor woman. We were giddy.
We opened the door and entered the refreshingly air-conditioned kitchen where she was seated at a table tinkering around with a sewing machine(if I remember correctly). We were standing there grinning. The looks on our faces must have betrayed us because when she turned and saw us she immediately dropped her hands and said, in preparatory amazement, "What did you guys find?!" We crossed the kitchen to where she was seated at the table and I held up a closed hand in front of her and asked, "Did you ever lose anything important under the hammock?" What she said next, I'm telling you all, is the truth. She stood up and her eyes welled with tears and she said, "Did you find my claddagh ring?!" I laughed half astounded and opened my hand to show her that her guess was correct. She started laughing and crying some at the same time. She put the ring on as best she could(it was a little smashed) and held it up and just stared at it smiling ear to ear. I don't think I've seen very many times in my life someone so surprised and happy as she was right then. We all marveled at it and admired it and laughed a lot. She hugged me a bunch and thanked me so many times that I almost had to tell her to stop, haha. She even tried to offer me money and gifts for it! Of course, like anyone in that situation, I happily refused. There's nothing she could have given me more valuable than witnessing her joy of having a beloved, hopelessly lost item unexpectedly returned. I always had thought that if I found a gold ring and then found the owner that I might have a hard time giving it back. But I was wrong. It was the easiest thing I ever did. Felt great. Don't regret it for a second. Getting to find a gold ring is a rare opportunity. Getting to return it to the owner is far more rare and far more valuable. That's what I learned that day.
Anyway, you may wonder why she never mentioned to us that she had lost a ring in the yard. You'd think a person who had a son and friends with metal detectors on her yard that she might mention in passing that there was a lost gold ring out there somewhere. As we stood in that kitchen and talked she explained that her husband had bought that for her and she had lost it in 2008, ten years before. But she was sure she had lost it inside the house somewhere. She thought maybe it had gone down the tub drain or in a vent or who knows where. I guess it was just a premonition she had when we walked through that door and asked her if she lost something out by the hammock that the ring came immediately to her mind in hopeful desperation. It just goes to show you that when you lose something precious even though time can separate you from it for, sometimes decades, you'll always hold onto that hope in the back of your mind that some how, some way, some day, "it'll show up again."
In conclusion, I thought I should add that I ran into her almost a year later one day when I went over to visit Steve-O and his family. She came up to me and held up her hand to show me the ring resting comfortably around her finger. She said she was able to have a jeweler reshape the band that had been bent while it was in the ground. It looked brand new. Even more satisfaction to add to my experience and her's as well, I'm sure. Finally, the pictures I added here are from the day the ring was found. All the pics of the ring were right out there in the yard just moments after it was found. I just rested it on my knee and took some quick pictures. The picture of her is right after we presented it to her. I wanted to show her face in the picture so you could see how big her smile is but I didn't asked her permission to show her face. I'm sure she'd be fine with it but I just got lazy and forgot to ask. If you're still reading this, I hope it was interesting and not boring, hahaha! It's a lot of writing for one little gold ring but, hey, it is and will always be one of MY BEST FINDS!
I was out with my friend Steve-O metal detecting his mom and step dad's house where we had detected a time or two before a couple of years prior. The house was built about 1915 and sat on a sizeable corner lot. The couple of times we had hunted it before we encountered high trash content in the soil and none of us at the time were using small coils so the digs were slightly handicapped. However, we still were able to pull a few goodies. I think we dug a few wheats and somebody got some suspender pieces. I had also pulled an 1890s Barber dime from the side yard. We had been encouraged by that and decided we would revisit the yard on a rainy day when we were out of other sites to hunt. Turns out our rainy day was sunny with about a 100 degree heat-index but we were determined to get a couple of hours of swinging in. This time I was using my Garrett AT Pro with the Garrett Super Sniper coil. Steve-O was swinging the Ace250 or 350 - can't remember. We had no real expectations and were looking for nothing particular. We just wanted to see what we might have missed with the bigger coils in the previous hunts.
We started in the front and worked it pretty hard. Steve-O got off to a good start and popped a couple of wheats early on. It wasn't long and I pulled a merc out of what use to be an old garden along the front sidewalk. Steve-O's mom brought us a couple of ice waters to cool us off. As before, she had told us to keep whatever we find so long as we let her see it first(if it was cool). We showed her our loot and she congratulated us and went back inside. By this time we were both already completely soaked through our shirts with sweat. There was no shade in the front so we decided it was time to migrate to the shaded, but incredibly trashy-signaled, back yard to wrap up the hunt. We both kind of drifted towards the smaller detached addition to the house in the back corner of the backyard. Lots of can slaw, pull tabs, stinkin' zincolns, Hotwheels, etc. Since the zincs were out of control I started ignoring a lot of the iffy high tones - which ruled out most of the high tones back there. I got bored and decided to hunt only nickel signals. I wasn't doing that to try and find gold - I was doing it to find nickels, haha. Remember, this is seven years into detecting without gold; it was the furthest thing from my mind. I went over to a large tree nearby that had some big low-hanging branches. "We use to have a hammock right there." Steve-O said, digging a plug a few feet right of me. "Oh yeah?" I replied. "Bet this is a decent spot for some dropped clad" I thought to myself as I moved more directly into the location Steve-O had indicated. The first signal was a solid mid tone that was locked onto a 52 in every direction at about 2 inches down. "Got a nickel right here for sure." I said aloud to Steve-O who was still working a plug next to me. When my AT Pro locks onto a 52 and won't budge it's a guaranteed nickel. Almost without exception. I knelt down and stuck my Lesche in the soil just behind the target area and pried upwards. Out of the dirt a flash of brilliant yellow erupted. I knew instantly. Finally! It wasn't a cat food can lid, it wasn't an off-color pull tab, it wasn't gold tinted can slaw, it wasn't the screw cap ring from an Olde English - it was a RING ring! Gold! There was no initial apprehension this time as in previous gold-plate scares. It was so brilliant and flawless. So smooth and clean. The weight was good. I just knew.
I said nothing in those first few seconds of rapturous marvel. I pushed my finger through the middle and spun the ring around a rotation or two to clean out the dirt. I pulled my finger out and held it up in the light. "14K" it read! If there was any doubt at all it was completely extinguished right then and there. "Dude. I just found a gold ring in your parent's yard. Seriously. It's a real gold ring" I was in such shock I was downright catatonic. I had the "thousand-yard stare" of the treasure hunting world. Steve-O, not one for hysterics, swiveled on his knees from his position to the right of me, looked at me, and just smiled real big. He was a few feet away from me and I had the ring closed tightly in my fist so he couldn't see it. "Wait, does it happen to have two hands holding a crown or a heart or something?" He said as he crawled over to me, still smiling. I was shocked. He had, indeed, just described the ring I was holding still clenched in my fist. "How did you know that?" I asked. "I think my mom lost that ring a long time ago. It was something my step dad bought for her." We both just kind of stayed there kneeling and staring down at it in my hand. After a few snaps with my phone's camera I stood up, "Well, let's go give it back to her!" We left our machines and trotted up to the back door like two scheming little boys who just caught a snake that was going to be used to scare the poor woman. We were giddy.
We opened the door and entered the refreshingly air-conditioned kitchen where she was seated at a table tinkering around with a sewing machine(if I remember correctly). We were standing there grinning. The looks on our faces must have betrayed us because when she turned and saw us she immediately dropped her hands and said, in preparatory amazement, "What did you guys find?!" We crossed the kitchen to where she was seated at the table and I held up a closed hand in front of her and asked, "Did you ever lose anything important under the hammock?" What she said next, I'm telling you all, is the truth. She stood up and her eyes welled with tears and she said, "Did you find my claddagh ring?!" I laughed half astounded and opened my hand to show her that her guess was correct. She started laughing and crying some at the same time. She put the ring on as best she could(it was a little smashed) and held it up and just stared at it smiling ear to ear. I don't think I've seen very many times in my life someone so surprised and happy as she was right then. We all marveled at it and admired it and laughed a lot. She hugged me a bunch and thanked me so many times that I almost had to tell her to stop, haha. She even tried to offer me money and gifts for it! Of course, like anyone in that situation, I happily refused. There's nothing she could have given me more valuable than witnessing her joy of having a beloved, hopelessly lost item unexpectedly returned. I always had thought that if I found a gold ring and then found the owner that I might have a hard time giving it back. But I was wrong. It was the easiest thing I ever did. Felt great. Don't regret it for a second. Getting to find a gold ring is a rare opportunity. Getting to return it to the owner is far more rare and far more valuable. That's what I learned that day.
Anyway, you may wonder why she never mentioned to us that she had lost a ring in the yard. You'd think a person who had a son and friends with metal detectors on her yard that she might mention in passing that there was a lost gold ring out there somewhere. As we stood in that kitchen and talked she explained that her husband had bought that for her and she had lost it in 2008, ten years before. But she was sure she had lost it inside the house somewhere. She thought maybe it had gone down the tub drain or in a vent or who knows where. I guess it was just a premonition she had when we walked through that door and asked her if she lost something out by the hammock that the ring came immediately to her mind in hopeful desperation. It just goes to show you that when you lose something precious even though time can separate you from it for, sometimes decades, you'll always hold onto that hope in the back of your mind that some how, some way, some day, "it'll show up again."
In conclusion, I thought I should add that I ran into her almost a year later one day when I went over to visit Steve-O and his family. She came up to me and held up her hand to show me the ring resting comfortably around her finger. She said she was able to have a jeweler reshape the band that had been bent while it was in the ground. It looked brand new. Even more satisfaction to add to my experience and her's as well, I'm sure. Finally, the pictures I added here are from the day the ring was found. All the pics of the ring were right out there in the yard just moments after it was found. I just rested it on my knee and took some quick pictures. The picture of her is right after we presented it to her. I wanted to show her face in the picture so you could see how big her smile is but I didn't asked her permission to show her face. I'm sure she'd be fine with it but I just got lazy and forgot to ask. If you're still reading this, I hope it was interesting and not boring, hahaha! It's a lot of writing for one little gold ring but, hey, it is and will always be one of MY BEST FINDS!
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