My Slump Has Ended.....2nd 10K HS Ring......

[Garrett424]

It happened again!!

After a pretty terrible hunting weekend where I never really got into "the zone" I left work feeling really good. That "little voice" spontaneously said, "Go back to the field and hit around the pitcher's mound" (which I've hit many times already with very little luck).

I had planned all day to go to a completely different spot but my intuition had something else in mind. As usual, I obeyed. I began to feel really lucky and was definitely in the zone by the time I got there and started swinging. It felt good.

I wasn't there 10 minutes and about 3 feet to the left of where the pitcher's mound used to be (many years ago) I got the strangest hit. It was faint and bouncing like crazy so I had to dig it up to see what was hiding down there. It could have been anything because my numbers were all over the place.

Imagine my surprise when I dug another big 10K Man's High School ring. It's missing the stone (which I tried to find with no luck) and is in pretty bad shape but it's still another gold ring so I'm happy.

This is also the second time I've gotten a really bouncy reading on a gold ring. Very strange. Now I'm wondering how many I've missed.

Here it is before cleaning:



And after a really quick rinse:



Gotta' love the way that gold shines right up no matter how long it's been hidden away in the dirt. It never ceases to amaze me.

There are no initials and no name. It's a Jenkins ring (a local company btw), marked 10K and it's from Patterson High in Baltimore; dated 1977. The owner would be around 55-56 right about now.
I'll see what I can come up with as far as the possibility of returning it goes.

The owner of the last one I found refuses to take it back and the grandson told me to stop contacting him. I'm wondering if it may have been stolen and a new name put on it or something. I don't know.

Anyway, this is the 2nd HS ring and 4th gold piece from this spot. Needless to say I'm going back.

I needed a decent find. All weekend long no matter what I did I was just not feelin' it. Then I drove almost an hour to a new spot that was terrible. There must have been a million pull tabs and bottle caps and the ground was hard as a rock. It was downright aggravating. Next thing you know I find more gold in a matter of minutes in a place I've hunted many times.

You just never know with this hobby. Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason.

I do know one thing. I love old coins and silver but I have to admit; I'm pretty sure that at this point, gold is my favorite thing to find. Of course, platinum would be nice too. I haven't come across any; yet.

That's about it.
Thanks for lookin' & Happy Hunting.......

 

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[Old Dude]

That would be quite the kicker...to get a VPO put on you for trying to return a ring! Wow, now I have heard it all.

 

[Smithsgold]

Congrats !!!!

 

[Brother Al]

First of all congratulations on the gold! Second.... Very strange that an owner refused a return on the last one
In 35 years of detecting I've never heard of such a thing? Any other members wanna weigh in?
Kudos for trying though!
God bless, Al.

 

[Brother Al]

That would be quite the kicker...to get a VPO put on you for trying to return a ring! Wow, now I have heard it all.

Yeah, strange times we live in eh?

 

[treblehunter]

GOLD!
Congrats, great find.

 

[OBN]

Very nice catch!! No name and lost many years ago a slim chance of finding.. I would save it or melt it and reap the reward for all the pulls you have dug in that field....And let me know if you want to do a hunt this fall, I am fairly booked until Oct but I know a few places with fresh water that would work for both of us...

 

[Garrett424]

First of all congratulations on the gold! Second.... Very strange that an owner refused a return on the last one
In 35 years of detecting I've never heard of such a thing? Any other members wanna weigh in?
Kudos for trying though!
God bless, Al.

It IS very strange.

I have several possible scenarios as to why anyone would refuse to accept the return of a lost item.

One, they owe money or have some repo man or company trying to locate them. Those people use all sorts of tricks to catch people.
I've witnessed that when I worked for a guy as a limo driver. The repo folks actually booked the limo as high rolling big shots and claimed they'd pay top dollar. An hour later they were driving it; not me.

They had two GORGEOUS girls greet me at a hotel. When I got out and walked around to to open the door for them a really big dude grabbed the keys through the drivers side window and proceeded to show me the paperwork that proved it was now his vehicle. He was cool and let me get my stuff out before driving away in it.

Two, the guy either found or stole the ring and engraved his name on it. I've since learned (through a lady at the school) that there is no record of this guy attending the school that year but he did once live in Kansas where the ring originated.

Three, in this day and age I guess there are people who get very suspicious of someone calling out of the blue trying to do the right thing. Pretty sad huh??

I spoke with the grandson by phone twice and even spent a buck to send a detailed message directly to his Facebook inbox (and I never even use FB). I explained the entire story and even offered to send it to a neutral location or P.O. box. He said he'd let me know and a few days later I got an email asking to please stop contacting him.

Go figure. My gut is leaning toward found or stolen ring but I can't say for sure. There's just no way to know. I really got the feeling after speaking with the grandson and the last message I received from him.
My gut is seldom wrong; if ever.
If so, losing it was some karma huh??

 

[Garrett424]

Very nice catch!! No name and lost many years ago a slim chance of finding.. I would save it or melt it and reap the reward for all the pulls you have dug in that field....And let me know if you want to do a hunt this fall, I am fairly booked until Oct but I know a few places with fresh water that would work for both of us...

Thanks and a fall hunt sounds awesome. I'll definitely be in touch.

I'm hitting my best water spot this Friday for the first time this year and I am psyched. I'm hoping today's find is a little taste of things to come.

 

[OBN]

Good Luck!!

 

[qaela4]

Congratulations and good luck hunting down an owner. As for the first ring, maybe the guy gave it to his sweetheart and she broke his heart so now he wants nothing to do with it. Some people just can't handle bad memories.

 

[Garrett424]

Congratulations and good luck hunting down an owner. As for the first ring, maybe the guy gave it to his sweetheart and she broke his heart so now he wants nothing to do with it. Some people just can't handle bad memories.

I thought about that myself; either a lost love or maybe just a horrible high school experience. It certainly wouldn't be the first.

I threw away a 10K wedding band myself; on a railroad track. At the time it felt great.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Garrett424,

First of all congrats on another class ring!! I've yet to find one myself. You're a good man! I think sadly the last scenario may the most likely--these days some people just feel like they are being set up and are scared. It's sad that the crumbs of society have ruined some things for the good people such as yourself. Well at least you went the extra mile and tried to return it and I think you deserve an Honorable Mention just for that extra effort!!

It IS very strange.

I have several possible scenarios as to why anyone would refuse to accept the return of a lost item.

One, they owe money or have some repo man or company trying to locate them. Those people use all sorts of tricks to catch people.
I've witnessed that when I worked for a guy driving as a limo driver. The repo folks actually booked the limo as high rolling big shots and claimed they'd pay top dollar. An hour later they were driving it; not me.

They had two GORGEOUS girls greet me at a hotel. When I got out and walked around to to open the door for them a really big dude grabbed the keys and showed me the paperwork that proved it was now his vehicle. He was cool and let me get my stuff out before driving away in it.

Two, the guy either found or stole the ring and engraved his name on it. I've since learned (through a lady at the school) that there is no record of this guy ever attending the school that year but he did once live in Wichita KS where the ring originated.

Three, in this day and age I guess there are people who get very suspicious of someone calling out of the blue trying to do the right thing. Pretty sad huh??

I spoke with the grandson by phone twice and even spent a buck to send a detailed message directly to his Facebook inbox (and I never even use FB). I explained the entire story and even offered to send it to a neutral location or P.O. box. He said he'd let me know and a few days later I got an email asking to please stop contacting him.

Go figure. My gut is leaning toward found or stolen ring but I can't say for sure. There's just no way to know. I really got the feeling after speaking with the grandson and the last message I received from him.
My gut is seldom wrong; if ever.
If so, losing it was some karma huh??

 

[Loco-Digger]

Congrats on the class ring. Kudos for trying to do the right thing.

 

[Garrett424]

I just checked the school website and found no listing for a lost 1977 ring or any ring lost in the area I found it.

I have to get to work now but I'll try and contact the alumni association and see what pops. If someone can verify the location there's still the possibility of a return.

 

[46Wheat]

Good luck on the return search . If you don't succeed the karma police will still notice you trying and reward your effort

 

[Skippy SH13]

Garrett424,

The reason the 10K rings bounce so much on your readout is because they're an alloy. 10K is just 41.7% gold. This of course, means that 58.3% of the weight of the ring is made from other metals. For the 10K rings, the other metals vary, but are primarily comprised of copper, but it's not uncommon to have some silver, and very likely some nickel or zinc which adds hardness. The result is a ring that bounces ALL OVER the metals detected.

The purer the gold, the more likely the ring will stabilize in the gold readout range. White gold, which contains a lot of nickel, rings the most solid for me in the gold range (in which nickel is smack in!) Personally, I've found that 14K bands bounce only a little, 10K bounces a lot for me, and the one 9K ring I pulled out, I swore was just going to be trash. Only one 8.6 gram 14K mens ring rang solid... and it was at the nickel range with zero bounce. I believe this was largely due to the orientation of the ring in the ground (flat with hole parallel, making for a great target), and the size of the ring. It rang up just like any nickel would.

With all that bouncing, I've given up trying to determine if what I'm going to pull is likely to be gold, and I simply dig it all. I've been rewarded with 6 gold rings this year. To be sure, I'm also rewarded with thousands of bits of trash and pulltabs!

My best find was 4.5 inches deep, and I know this area has been hit repeatedly by detectorists over the years... The thing is, most of them won't dig up what looks like trash on the read out. The ring (estimated at $4K-$6K at the jeweler who cleaned it) and it bounced nickel, foil, occasionally up at the copper range. I'm certain every other detectorist thought it was trash... Heck, I thought it was trash! Even when I pulled it out, I was still thinking "costume jewelry." And how happy I am, that I was wrong! I went back and cleaned 100% of the trash out of the area, and was even rewarded with a second gold ring... 14K yellow gold plain band. Also bounced like trash...

The point here is, with alloys, you never can tell, and it's worth digging a little bit extra.

Super excited for your find. that's a real catch!

Here's the link to the ring I referenced above...
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/m...5-14k-white-gold-setting-found-ace-350-a.html

Skippy

 

[augusthog]

Any gold is an Uber Groovy find! Well done. To find the owner is just a Super Duper Uber Groovy find!

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats G424 in another class ring! I have yet to find one, the closest I have come is the Girl Scout ring... filled, but looks so real, it will make you jump around and get all excited before it lets you down! Man I'm telling you it looked real!

As for the fruitcake that didn't want the ring returned, I say EXCELLENT and Thanks man! Very well done. Best of luck to you.

 

[Garrett424]

Congrats G424 in another class ring! I have yet to find one, the closest I have come is the Girl Scout ring... filled, but looks so real, it will make you jump around and get all excited before it lets you down! Man I'm telling you it looked real!

As for the fruitcake that didn't want the ring returned, I say EXCELLENT and Thanks man! Very well done. Best of luck to you.

Thanks; again.

Damn that thing does look real.

I hate those heart stoppers. I've dug quite a few of them so far.

Gold filled is way more annoying than gold plated because it looks so real.
But, that's still a nice looking GS ring. It may have some collector value, especially if it's an old one.