Big Gold Ring Goes Home!

[F350Platinum]

Today I went back to finish up the field I dug the big gold ring in.

It started out in the 30s but went up into the 60's today, a sign that relic season is almost over. 🥲 While much shorter than previous years, it's been a good one.

I brought the Manticore with the M15 coil again, I'm using Neil Jones' Freestyle program, it really seems well suited for my area.

I was hoping to finish up this field and start another next to it. That didn't happen. 🫤 I finished the field, but it was too late in the day.

However, it was a really great day! I saw the landowner leaving his house in his Jeep, and waved frantically to have him stop and talk for a bit. First question I asked was if there was anyone in his family that was a Mason, and he said there was. It was an uncle or great uncle who passed in the mid 1940s, he was the Superintendent of the school system my wife and I both worked for! 🤯

That was before our time, but my wife remembers stuff that was still in the office that had to do with him. He was a Mason, and a Master of the local Masonic Lodge. Apparently he was also a Shriner. 

I showed him a photo of the ring, and he was extremely happy that I had found it and was getting it restored, he immediately volunteered to pay the jewelry store for the restoration. I said I would call them and have them take it from there. 

He told me he'd pay me for anything I was charged so far, and I said they didn't charge anything to straighten it out. I told him I was glad to give it back, it is obviously a very valuable and sentimental ring, ~$6,000 to have the Masonic ringmaker make one today.

The only thing I asked him for was no notoriety, and any new permission(s) he might know of. Turned out he owns another 60 acres about a mile down the road, and he said to "help myself" 🥳 He said he knows a lot of the other prominent families in the area, but I'll discuss that with him later 🤔

So, back to the fun, I hunted the rest of the field and all I got was this old Virginia dog tax tag:

Which I gave to the landowner. Aside from that I got 4 coins: 

 

A Buffalo nickel with no discernable date, and 3 wheats, 1910, 1926, and 1928.

I dug an absolute crapton of trash:

Everything but the kitchen sink 🙄 no iron tho. Freestyle "hears" iron well. I'm getting used to the sound aluminum makes along with the initial target trace, and of course lifting the coil helps.

I hope I can get back to the next field, and scout the new one before relic season is over. 

I brought my wife some fragrant white daffodils I saw in the woods, it's a spring tradition.

🍀

[ColonelDan]

Great story; super gesture on your part!  🫡

[Joe D.]

Awsome story Bob!👍

  The money, if sold, is always nice, but soon spent and forgotten! Your luck and generosity will live for a much longer time!

   Here's to many more permissions, and great finds! May your luck, and good karma keep turning up under your coil!🏅🍀👍👍

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

Great Story and Great Karma coming! 

[F350Platinum]

9 hours ago, ColonelDan said:

Great story; super gesture on your part!  🫡

Thanks Colonel, 🫡

The landowner is one of my best benefactors, It's quite the feeling to show honesty, respect, and gratitude for his generosity. Two years ago I gave him a "thank you" display case with a representative sample of what I've found there, it included a dog tag from a favorite dog of his long ago, buttons, and some silver coins.

This was a similar act to returning a gold coin for another a while back, as this landowner said in our conversation: "If you give, you get". 🙂

[F350Platinum]

5 hours ago, Joe D. said:

Awsome story Bob!👍

  The money, if sold, is always nice, but soon spent and forgotten! Your luck and generosity will live for a much longer time!

   Here's to many more permissions, and great finds! May your luck, and good karma keep turning up under your coil!🏅🍀👍👍

Thanks for the blessing, my friend. 🙂

It was an easy decision to make, all things considered. Had it not been a family member or an unknown individual, I would have extended the same offer to the local Masonic Lodge. I am glad I posted the find here, I got some advice from another member that influenced me to get this done right. I was headed in that direction anyway. 🙂

It really does seem that doing the right thing in these instances of moral obligation will increase a detectorists' luck. 🍀

[F350Platinum]

6 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Great Story and Great Karma coming! 

Thanks Joe, 

I have to credit you in particular for the advice regarding these sentimental objects. 🏆 Thanks for your help!

The landowner tells me there is a portrait of the person who lost it in the local Lodge, ironically they called him recently for some background info on him. Good timing! 😅

He is interred in a cemetery behind the main house, in my research I looked for any gravestone there that had the Masonic Logo on it, but couldn't find one. I also found other Masons who had Shriner credentials in my area, but his name did not come up. It was a gamble that paid off. 🙂

[Ripcode]

WOW!!  That is awesome you were able to return that ring!! Congrats!! 🎉🎉

[rvpopeye]

Instant karma gonna get you  ,  OH Yeah 350 🤩  !

WTG ! 👍

🖖 And you're gonna have to live very long to swing coils over that (ever expanding) acreage . 

So , when do you figure the Holy Grail will show up ? 🤔