Ray in CA
Hero Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2007
- Messages
- 983
- Reaction score
- 16
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Quincy, CA
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Safari with SEF 8x6; coming soon: FORS Gold+
A lady in town gave me permission to detect her 1911 house a few weeks ago. Her son said he thought it had never been detected before and was probably virgin ground. Well, to a detectorist that's enough to make one drool. So, I made one pass over the small property with my Silver uMax and stock coil. Nothing but modern pennies and junk. A few days later came back with my 10x12. A couple more pennies and junk, plus a clad quarter. Came back again a week later and same story, except this time I dug up an Heirloom Virginian pattern sterling silver fork, slightly bent at the tip of the handle but otherwise in great condition. I stick it into my Jeep and head home not thinking much of it and didn't even bother to clean it.
Today I decided to hit the property one more time. No sooner had I got there and started detecting the lady's son pulls up and waves me a hello. I call him over and tell him I've got something for his mother. I pull out the sterling silver fork (now cleaned up) from my car and tell him to give it to her, as it's about the only thing I found as of yet. He looks shocked and then tells me that a few days earlier he had taken out of the old house a complete set of silverware from the kitchen and the only thing it was missing was this fork!! And apparently the entire set can be worth quite a pretty penny!! (see here: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6157382).
I've always envied those guys who have found class rings and were able to return them to their original owners, but now I can boast that I've done something that probably not many people can claim to have done--restore a complete set of sterling silverware!
Unfortunately I didn't even bother to take pictures of the fork, as I was so bummed about not finding any silver coinage to speak of. But the bright side is that the lady also owns land where an old lumber mill used to be, and I have permission to go and detect there anytime.
Ray
Today I decided to hit the property one more time. No sooner had I got there and started detecting the lady's son pulls up and waves me a hello. I call him over and tell him I've got something for his mother. I pull out the sterling silver fork (now cleaned up) from my car and tell him to give it to her, as it's about the only thing I found as of yet. He looks shocked and then tells me that a few days earlier he had taken out of the old house a complete set of silverware from the kitchen and the only thing it was missing was this fork!! And apparently the entire set can be worth quite a pretty penny!! (see here: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6157382).
I've always envied those guys who have found class rings and were able to return them to their original owners, but now I can boast that I've done something that probably not many people can claim to have done--restore a complete set of sterling silverware!
Unfortunately I didn't even bother to take pictures of the fork, as I was so bummed about not finding any silver coinage to speak of. But the bright side is that the lady also owns land where an old lumber mill used to be, and I have permission to go and detect there anytime.
Ray
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