My 170ish year old gold with ice - my find of a lifetime

[mustang8780]

I must admit right of the bat that i found this in July, however I believe it qualifies as a "today's find" post due to what i just found out about it!

I will apologize upfront for the long winded post but those of you who enjoy a little history and a relic that has all that plus gold and diamonds will appreciate what I am about to try and divulge.

Last night we had our 1st annual Christmas dinner for my relic club, Rappahannock Relic Hunters Association. The guest speaker at the show was a period jewelry expert so i thought I would bring the find that I had tucked away since early July. Back in early July i was granted permission to hunt a homesite in Amissville VA that was right off of Rt 211, the house was built in 1800 and i could tell it was built by someone of great wealth because instead of your ordinary small rooms of purpose each room in this house was oversized and had built in bookcases and large closets, very rare for a house built at the turn of the 18th century. Anyway, I found a number of great relics while i was able to detect at the site, including what I thought at the time was my best find from the house...a mexican wars one piece cast silver gilted eagle I. That was until last night. I had found this ring on one of my last visits to the home and it was one of the last targets I dug there, it was under a 200 year old boxwood and gave a very iffy signal on the e-trac...almost didnt dig it but i knew better.

When I flipped the plug expecting an old beat up shot gun shell I was surprised to see gold staring back at me. When I turned the ring over I was even more surprised to see a serpent motif as well as a diamond...'wow' i thought. I field cleaned it a little on spot, it wasnt too dirty as the gold and diamond really didnt retain much of the dirt, and immediately i didnt see any markings on it and was a little bummed about that...so when I brought it home I stuck it in my finds case and basically forgot about it. That was until my buddy told my to dig it out and bring it to the dinner since there would be a period expert there.

This is when things got really interesting...

I showed the ring to the expert and this is basically what she had to say:

"About the ring...the snake/serpent motif got popular around 1837, here and in England, and remained so throughout the Victorian era. Genuine rocks of that size are uncommon in mid-Victorian pieces, which were made in the days before the big South Africa diamond cache discoveries. Still, they DID exist in some high-end early pieces. It’s mine cut, that usually speaks toward early. Also the fact that there is no metal content mark and the ring didn’t appear to have had enough wear to have smoothed them off. This puts the ring in the 19th century and given the other information early 1800's. The snake motif symbolizes eternal love and diamonds symbolizes faithfulness."

I was blown away, I have a ring that predates the diamond rush of the 1860's and a diamond size which was very rare due to how costly and rare they were that early. Its also a piece that relates to the victorian era and is just fantastic.

My best find to date.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do now

Phil

[mikefromIllinois]

Nice looking ring and great story. Congrats. Mike

[nsdq]

super nice diggs

[civilman1]

Look's old for sure Nice Dig!!!! Keep us up-dated......

[BobinSouthVA]

great story and awesome ring.

[Hans R Dirty]

What are the markings I see on the inside bottom of the ring?

[mustang8780]

Thanks guys for all the replies, I am very excited to have it.

@Hans R Dirty - there are a few nicks inside the band but they arent markings...as far as that goes there arent any. The US was not regulated when it came to marking jewelry and did not require metal content to be marked until 1906 and did not require a makers mark until 1961, there are exceptions to this but generally old us jewelry has no markings.

Phil

[BosnMate]

That's a super great save. Congratulations, and thanks for the info on Victorian jewelry.

[jewelerguy]

schweet!!

[candig]

Decision time!
Hang on to it as a historical find, sell it as a historical piece, or sell it as melt!
Memory, money or money.
I stay neutral but I'm in it for the money!

[mustang8780]

Its an easy decision, it was dug so therfore it will be kept and treasured. I am in this hobby for the history and the saving therof.

Besides, I doubt the melt value is even close to what it would appraise as a period piece and that probably isn't enough to make or break me.


Phil

[texjim]

nice find and nice story...i am with you mustang i don't sell anything i find....

[Woodland Detectors]

I cannot believe no one has mentioned BANNERyet. Phil this is an extraordinary find and banner in my book buddy.

My vote is in

[baylorhall]

I agree! Banner find!

[capndan151]

Nice find! I always get confused between mine cut and round brilliant cut. To me it looks like a brilliant cut so how do tell the difference between cuts?

[gemee]

VERY NICE! I am betting that at one time there were small garnets in the eye spaces.

[mustang8780]

I am pretty sure someone with a good eye has to be the judge but basically the old mine cut was a predecessor of the round brilliant cut. It came into existence in the late seventeenth century. The old miner was the first diamond cut that had all the facets of the present round brilliant cut: the bezel, the star, pavilion mains, etc. However, the facet alignment and sizes were in a different manner as compared to the current round brilliant. The old miner was also more of a square or cushion cut, rather than being round. In fact, today's cushion cut is an improved old mine cut.

We looked pretty close at the eyes to see if they showed clues that would lead you to think they had stones set at one point and we unable to come to a conclusion about that.


Thanks again for all the comments!

[treasurehound]

Phil that is a great find and story. Banner for sure. See you at DIV in March.

[Neil in West Jersey]

It's always nice to find out that something you put aside is special. When it is gold with diamonds? Priceless!

I was wondering if there were two colored stones where the eyes are as well.

[Lonestar]

CONGRADULATIONS!
Very nice find, I would be asking for permission to hunt those grounds again for sure! Nomination for banner is in order, I spent at least 10 minutes just looking over this post!