Skippy SH13
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2015
- Messages
- 1,131
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- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
DIAMONDS, DIAMONDS, 585, oh my!
I posted a thread yesterday in the MD'ing forum, but realized this morning, this ought to go under "Today's Finds." Since it's still with 24 hours of me finding it (about 23 hours and 35 minutes ago), I figure I'm still legal.
FINALLY... I FINALLY found a ring with diamonds. Hunting with the ACE 350 in a park. Ring was about 4 inches down, and rang up pull tab/gold, but wasn't the "solid" tone I'm used to with rings. I figure it was because it was deeper, and not really a "solid" band (had three bands that were connected).
It's my 6th gold ring this year, and when it showed up in the ground, when I lifted the flap, I immediately thought "Costume jewelry" for sure. It was just too blingy to be real, right?
My son was hunting with me, though, and there were lots of folks watching at the park, so I simply said to him, "look at this." And he said, "cool" (all calm and non-chalant, just like we practiced... He's the perfect kid. LOL), and I pocketed it and we both kept hunting. A few minutes later we met again at the next row, and I pulled it out and we looked at it. He blew out some of the dirt, and said, "Hey, this is hollow." At that point, my brain piqued. Initially, when I pulled it out of the ground, it looked like a black and silver ring (that rang up as a pull tab). I figured it was just costume... When he said that, and handed over the ring, I noted there was ZERO corrosion on it, and I wiped the inside band. The "hollow" was the arms of the gold holding the diamonds. Inside the edge, I immediately found the hallmark 585 UJDC. BOOYAH! At that point, I simply said out loud, "I guess it's time to hit that other site," and we we metal detected a bit more as we walked to the car. We'd actually already been discussing going to the other site, but it seemed like a good time to leave to go ahead and look at the find.
Once in the car, we were SOO excited together (It's so much fun sharing that with someone, especially my son!)... we cleaned it up a bit and noted it had a TON of diamonds on it. My son was asking "are they real?" I told him I thought so, since it was 14K white gold, and they looked very well placed.
Long story shortened... we ended up NOT going to the other site (we really were planning on another location!), but rather ended up at a superstore jewelry counter, where they cleaned it a bit (with brush and light solvent first), then tested. First diamond tested positive, but the other large ones couldn't get a read. The manager was called over, and he looked under the microscope. He noted they were all prong attachments, not glued in, then took it in the back to steam it clean. We had a nice talk about the find, and they were very excited, references to "American Digger" were thrown about. LOL
The manager came back, and noted that they all tested positive, definitely real, and decent stones, to boot! He noted the reason for the hard time getting positive readings was the shape of the cut (They had peaks on the large three center diamonds), noting they were quite unique cuts, that he'd not seen before.. instead of having a flat top, these had an additional 6 facets.
I'm so stoked! Bucket list checked off, in a BIG way! Woot!
Further research puts this ring in a probable range of $4K to $6K, and possibly more, depending on the cuts of the three middle stones (they're peaked, not a flat table like Ideal... definitely something not normally seen). It has 81 total diamonds, with three decent sized stones in the circles, and 4 in the bars between. Each of the circle stone appears to be about a 1/4 carat, but that's based on size for an ideal cut. These are deep behind, but they're peaked, meaning there's a bit more carats involved. I'm "guesstimating" about 1.8 total carat weight. Additionally, I couldn't see any occlusions without the microscope and then it was only pinpoints. Definitely white... nice stone set for sure!
My mom arrived within a few hours to barter for the ring (which she could have had WITHOUT that, but I'm game!), and she's now wearing it. Fit perfectly. My father will be taking it to the jeweler soon to make sure all prongs are solid, and to get an appraisal for the insurance. I'll know more then. In the meantime, this will probably be my "best find" for a LONG time.
I LOVE this hobby... That was ring #48 for the year. Most costume jewelry, but this is the 6th gold one. They do pop up!
This video is only 6 seconds long... and simply shows the ring in the sunlight after being cleaned up.
Here are some pics of the ring. In the first one, you can still see the dirt on it. The second is just after the jeweler cleaning. The video above was me taking a last photo before it ended up on my mom's finger!
EDIT: photos removed... Thread is 5 months old.
-Skippy
EDIT: Following up on Due Diligence to Find owner:
<<<
Quote Originally Posted by huntsman53
I have one great worry for the O.P. and that is if the original owner filed a Police Report that the ring was lost or stolen! Even though the ring was apparently in the ground for some time seeing that it was around 4 inches down, someone may be still looking for it.
Frank
>>>
This is actually a really good point, and worth following up on (for both clarification, and potentially a course of action for forum viewers in the same situation).
I've actually tried to figure out what to do with finding the owner. Checked for lost postings on Craigslist, but there was nothing of course. The find was at a city park though, and having found a class ring in another park a few months ago, that was pinned at 6 years lost with only a few inches down... the depth on this places it at 8-10 years old lost at a minimum.
For due diligence, I contacted the City Hall today, and explained the situation. They told me Parks and Rec handles lost and found, and put me in touch with the Parks and Rec Department, who put me through to Lost and Found. I collected names along the way. I explained the situation to the Lost and Found gal, that I was a Metal Detectorist and found a ring in the park that was a few inches down. She confirmed that the park was within their jurisdiction, and that they do have a lost and found, but it’s just a “box,” and they don’t maintain a listing of lost reports. She also noted there were no lost ring reports in recent memory. I asked her what I should do, given that the ring is already “on my mom’s finger.”
Her words, EXACTLY, “Given that the ring was lost so long ago, you can tell your Mom she can keep the ring as a prize.” I thanked her for her time, and she laughed and offered me good luck on future hunts.
I believe due diligence is complete. The ring was reported to the Park Officials, and Lost and Found told me explicitly that we could keep it.
Skippy
I posted a thread yesterday in the MD'ing forum, but realized this morning, this ought to go under "Today's Finds." Since it's still with 24 hours of me finding it (about 23 hours and 35 minutes ago), I figure I'm still legal.
FINALLY... I FINALLY found a ring with diamonds. Hunting with the ACE 350 in a park. Ring was about 4 inches down, and rang up pull tab/gold, but wasn't the "solid" tone I'm used to with rings. I figure it was because it was deeper, and not really a "solid" band (had three bands that were connected).
It's my 6th gold ring this year, and when it showed up in the ground, when I lifted the flap, I immediately thought "Costume jewelry" for sure. It was just too blingy to be real, right?
My son was hunting with me, though, and there were lots of folks watching at the park, so I simply said to him, "look at this." And he said, "cool" (all calm and non-chalant, just like we practiced... He's the perfect kid. LOL), and I pocketed it and we both kept hunting. A few minutes later we met again at the next row, and I pulled it out and we looked at it. He blew out some of the dirt, and said, "Hey, this is hollow." At that point, my brain piqued. Initially, when I pulled it out of the ground, it looked like a black and silver ring (that rang up as a pull tab). I figured it was just costume... When he said that, and handed over the ring, I noted there was ZERO corrosion on it, and I wiped the inside band. The "hollow" was the arms of the gold holding the diamonds. Inside the edge, I immediately found the hallmark 585 UJDC. BOOYAH! At that point, I simply said out loud, "I guess it's time to hit that other site," and we we metal detected a bit more as we walked to the car. We'd actually already been discussing going to the other site, but it seemed like a good time to leave to go ahead and look at the find.
Once in the car, we were SOO excited together (It's so much fun sharing that with someone, especially my son!)... we cleaned it up a bit and noted it had a TON of diamonds on it. My son was asking "are they real?" I told him I thought so, since it was 14K white gold, and they looked very well placed.
Long story shortened... we ended up NOT going to the other site (we really were planning on another location!), but rather ended up at a superstore jewelry counter, where they cleaned it a bit (with brush and light solvent first), then tested. First diamond tested positive, but the other large ones couldn't get a read. The manager was called over, and he looked under the microscope. He noted they were all prong attachments, not glued in, then took it in the back to steam it clean. We had a nice talk about the find, and they were very excited, references to "American Digger" were thrown about. LOL
The manager came back, and noted that they all tested positive, definitely real, and decent stones, to boot! He noted the reason for the hard time getting positive readings was the shape of the cut (They had peaks on the large three center diamonds), noting they were quite unique cuts, that he'd not seen before.. instead of having a flat top, these had an additional 6 facets.
I'm so stoked! Bucket list checked off, in a BIG way! Woot!
Further research puts this ring in a probable range of $4K to $6K, and possibly more, depending on the cuts of the three middle stones (they're peaked, not a flat table like Ideal... definitely something not normally seen). It has 81 total diamonds, with three decent sized stones in the circles, and 4 in the bars between. Each of the circle stone appears to be about a 1/4 carat, but that's based on size for an ideal cut. These are deep behind, but they're peaked, meaning there's a bit more carats involved. I'm "guesstimating" about 1.8 total carat weight. Additionally, I couldn't see any occlusions without the microscope and then it was only pinpoints. Definitely white... nice stone set for sure!
My mom arrived within a few hours to barter for the ring (which she could have had WITHOUT that, but I'm game!), and she's now wearing it. Fit perfectly. My father will be taking it to the jeweler soon to make sure all prongs are solid, and to get an appraisal for the insurance. I'll know more then. In the meantime, this will probably be my "best find" for a LONG time.
I LOVE this hobby... That was ring #48 for the year. Most costume jewelry, but this is the 6th gold one. They do pop up!
This video is only 6 seconds long... and simply shows the ring in the sunlight after being cleaned up.
Here are some pics of the ring. In the first one, you can still see the dirt on it. The second is just after the jeweler cleaning. The video above was me taking a last photo before it ended up on my mom's finger!
EDIT: photos removed... Thread is 5 months old.
-Skippy
EDIT: Following up on Due Diligence to Find owner:
<<<
Quote Originally Posted by huntsman53
I have one great worry for the O.P. and that is if the original owner filed a Police Report that the ring was lost or stolen! Even though the ring was apparently in the ground for some time seeing that it was around 4 inches down, someone may be still looking for it.
Frank
>>>
This is actually a really good point, and worth following up on (for both clarification, and potentially a course of action for forum viewers in the same situation).
I've actually tried to figure out what to do with finding the owner. Checked for lost postings on Craigslist, but there was nothing of course. The find was at a city park though, and having found a class ring in another park a few months ago, that was pinned at 6 years lost with only a few inches down... the depth on this places it at 8-10 years old lost at a minimum.
For due diligence, I contacted the City Hall today, and explained the situation. They told me Parks and Rec handles lost and found, and put me in touch with the Parks and Rec Department, who put me through to Lost and Found. I collected names along the way. I explained the situation to the Lost and Found gal, that I was a Metal Detectorist and found a ring in the park that was a few inches down. She confirmed that the park was within their jurisdiction, and that they do have a lost and found, but it’s just a “box,” and they don’t maintain a listing of lost reports. She also noted there were no lost ring reports in recent memory. I asked her what I should do, given that the ring is already “on my mom’s finger.”
Her words, EXACTLY, “Given that the ring was lost so long ago, you can tell your Mom she can keep the ring as a prize.” I thanked her for her time, and she laughed and offered me good luck on future hunts.
I believe due diligence is complete. The ring was reported to the Park Officials, and Lost and Found told me explicitly that we could keep it.
Skippy
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