Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People (13 page)

I pulled my hand out of
the sand pile and reached down with my other hand to try and feel the
ring that was around my finger. I could not see anything. My thumb
brushed the top of the ring, and my heart raced. There was a huge
setting on top of the ring. If this thing was a diamond, it was a big
one.

I don't carry a light with
me when I hunt at night, but I do carry a cell phone. I quickly

fumbled for my cell phone
so that I could shed some light on my recent find.

The light that came from
the cell phone was just enough light to tease me even more. I was
still a good distance from my car. I kept the ring on my finger, and
looked back at the UFO. It was still there. I started to walk faster
towards where I had parked my car.

As I got closer to my car,
I got closer to the UFO. It was not that far out there. I squinted to
try and make sense of it, and then it hit me. It was a kite. I could
see the kite string in the moonlight. I followed the string to a
gazebo on the beach. Someone had tied this kite to the top of the
gazebo and it was flying up and down all on its own. For a while it
had me stumped.

When I got home, I told my
wife, “I think I found a huge diamond ring.” Her response
was, “Let me see it.” I held out my hand, and she slid
the ring off my pinky finger.

I could see it in the
light, and it was huge! I handed her the jewelers loupe so she could
look for any markings.

There was a 14k stamp on
the inside of the ring. A quick acid test told us that the ring was
real 14k gold, but what about the diamond? I did not have a diamond
tester, so I would have to wait until morning to take it to a
professional who instantly verified that it was indeed a real
diamond. It was just over 1 carat in size. How would you like to find
something like this?

It may seem like junk at
first, but you should never ever throw anything away that you find
unless you are 100% positive that it is garbage. There are instances
of people throwing away old Spanish coins because they just looked
like large black metal discs. A quick flick of the wrist, and those
300 year old coins skip right across the water where they quickly
sink to the bottom waiting to be found by someone with a little more
experience. It may be an object of mystery now, but in the future you
may be able to figure out exactly what it is. I have the perfect
example.

I was hunting a section of
beach during the early morning hours. The beach that I was hunting
allows driving. People drive up and down the beach all day long. The
night before, there was a huge Mardis Gras parade that went down the
beach. There were thousands of people everywhere. Now you know why I
wanted to hunt the area the next morning.

A large crowd of partying
people leave one thing behind, and they leave it behind in huge
numbers. Trash. It was everywhere. It was rather disgusting actually.
Empty beer bottles and cans right next to garbage cans.

I was finding plenty of
bottle tops, pull tabs, and other miscellaneous pieces of garbage. It
was hard work, but I was cleaning up the beach, and the beach likes
to reward you every once in a while. I got a good low tone on my
metal detector. It was right in the middle of a tire track, and it
was a shallow target.

I was hunting the dry. I
quickly sifted the sand through my scoop, and in the bottom of my
scoop was a smashed ring. At least I thought it was a ring. It must
have been some cheap costume jewelry from the Mardis Gras parade. I
put it in my pocket and went on hunting. Here is a picture of the
smashed ring.

When
I got home, I showed the crushed ring to my wife, and she said the
same thing. “It looks like costume jewelry from the parade. I
tossed it in my pile of junk jewelry that I kept in an old tackle
box, and completely forgot about it. At the time I had no idea how to
acid test a piece of jewelry, so that smashed ring sat in my tackle
box for over a year.

A
year passed and in that year, I learned a lot about how to identify
jewelry. I had purchased an acid test and a jewelers loupe, and I had
become very good at Iding my finds.

I
got back from a recent hunt where I found some junk jewelry. I keep
everything and you should too. I tossed my new junk jewelry into my
pile that was growing in my tackle box and that smashed ring bounced
to the top of the pile. I had completely forgotten about it. I
realized that I had never looked at it with a loupe or anything.

I
quickly grabbed the smashed ring from the pile and looked at it with
my loupe. A large part of the band was missing, and there were no
markings. I showed it to my wife and told her to take a look. She
looked at it, and then she flipped it around and looked at all

of
the stones on the front. Then she says this to me, “The top of
this ring is all smashed and broken, but the stones don't have a
scratch on them. Do you think they could be real diamonds?” The
thought had never crossed my mind. It was just costume jewelry.

I
wanted to try a diamond test that I had learned about. Sometimes, but
not all of the times, a diamond will glow a milky white if you put it
under a black light. My son had a black light in his room. I flipped
the light on, and three of the stones had that strange glow. I was
convinced they were real diamonds which meant that the ring was
either white gold or platinum.

I
broke out the acid test and it tested as 18k gold. I was thrilled.
This ring had quite a few large diamonds in it. I took it to a
jeweler to have it looked at. As soon as I handed it to him he tossed
it up in the air a few times and said, “This is platinum.”
He looked at the stones and said, “All of the stones are real,
and they are very old.

They
are a very old style diamond called European Mine cut. This ring is
from the early 1900s or even earlier.” I was thrilled to say
the least. I asked him if he could repair it, and he said “Of
Course!” Within a few days it was repaired and on my wife's
finger.

When
I first found this ring, I had almost thrown it in the garbage. Just
think about that for a second. I had an antique platinum diamond ring
that had over 2 carats of diamonds in it sitting in my house for over
a year, and I had no idea. DON'T THROW ANYTHING AWAY!

In 1934, B. M. Chumbley
graduated from his local Draper high school class. Like many other
proud graduates, Chumbley got a class ring to signify his huge
accomplishment. He made it through a huge chapter in his life.

His class ring was made
from 10 karat gold and adorned with a beautiful blue stone. The
outside of the ring had intricate detailing and on the inside were
his initials.

About a month later
Chumbley and a group of friends went swimming at a local creek. This
is when Chumbley noticed his class ring was missing. He assumed it
came off while swimming in the creek. It wouldn't be the first time a
person lost a ring while swimming. It happens all the time, but this
was not where he lost his ring.

Let's hop in a time
machine and travel 79 years into the future. Chumbley is now 97 years
old and that old class ring is nothing more than some far off memory.
Chumbley still resides in the same city. He even still lives in the
same house as the day he graduated high school.

He gets a knock on his
door. A man by the name of Robert O'neal is standing at his door.
Robert, a retired Virginia probation - parole officer and avid metal
detecting enthusiast asks Chumbley if he can have permission to metal
detect his property.

Robert is ready to put his
Minelab E-trac to good work. Robert knows the property is old and it
may hide some older coins.

Chumbley gives Robert
permission and the hunt is on. Robert's first target is a penny.
Nothing worth mentioning. His next target reveals a glimpse of gold
in the soil. Robert gets excited and plucks a gold ring from the
ground. He continues his hunt and manages to squeeze out a few more
choice coins before calling it the day.

When Robert gets home, he
decides to give the gold ring he found a good cleaning. Washing away
the caked on soil reveals an inscription that reads 1934 BMC. Robert
realizes what the inscription means and a month later returns to
Chumbley's house.

Robert asks Mr. Chumbley
if he ever lost anything, specifically a ring. Chumbley tells Robert
about how he lost his class ring so long ago. Smiling, Robert pulls
the old class ring from his pocket and hands it to Chumbley. Chumbley
was excited to have his long lost ring back in his hands. These are
the types of metal detecting stories that make digging through all
the trash worthwhile.

In 1956, William Reeve
married the love of his life. Her name was Marion. A gold wedding
band that fit perfectly on Marion's finger became a symbol of their
marriage. They were madly in love and together they had three
wonderful children.

In 1971, 15 years after
they were married, Marion was hanging the wash to dry when she
noticed her wedding ring was no longer on her finger. It was as if
the ring had vanished into thin air.

Of course Marion was upset
about the loss of her gold wedding band and it was quickly replaced,
but Marion longed for her original wedding ring. Over the years, her
entire family searched for her missing ring. For decades they scoured
the yard and garden looking for that ring, but it never did show up.

Chris Blackburn a metal
detecting enthusiast approached the family seeking permission to
search their property for coins. Chris's first hunt revealed a few
coins here and there but nothing special.

Years later, Chris returns
to hunt their property once again. Marion was upstairs watching Chris
as he swung his trusty metal detector. She watched him recover
something and make his way towards the house.

When Marion answered the
door, Chris stood there with her long lost gold wedding ring in his
hand. Marion, whose husband had died four years earlier became very
emotional.

The ring was in excellent
condition even though it had been buried just a few inches in the
ground for 42 years. The entire family thanked Chris for returning
the ring.

This story proves that
metal detecting uncovers all kinds of treasures. For Chris, the
treasure was seeing Marion's face when he handed her that long lost
wedding band!

Julie and her high school
sweetheart Sam Simeon from Alaska were married. Sam picked out a
small gold ring for Julie. The ring had two heart shaped stones. One
was an emerald and the other was a topaz. Sam also had both of their
names engraved along the inside of the band along with the phrase,
“our love grows stronger.” The ring was all the two young
lovebirds could afford.