Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People

by Smith, Mark D

  It would fall out of the sky and then shoot back up like a rocket. It was just barely visible. I was watching the sky, and suddenly my metal detector made a sound that I loved to hear. It was a nice tone that 4 out of ten times meant gold was buried under my coil. I dug a quick scoop and looked over my shoulder and the UFO was still doing its crazy dance through the sky.

  I threw the scoop of sand on the dry beach and moved my coil over the hole I had just dug. No more target. I had retrieved it in that scoop of sand. It was dark, and I had to feel my way through the pile of sand. I stuck my hand in the sand pile and a ring slid right around my finger. I laughed out loud.

  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?

  Don't Throw Away Anything

  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!

  Long Lost Ring

  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.

  42 Years In the Ground

  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!

  The Traveling Ring

  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.

  The two newlyweds were vacationing with the groom's parents in Hawaii. What do you do while you are in Hawaii? You swim. Who could say no to some of the most beautiful waters in the world? Julie couldn't and it was not long until her wedding ring slipped right off her finger and sank in the sand below.

  Frantically the two newlyweds searched for the ring using snorkeling equipment. The ring didn't show up. Was the loss of the ring an omen? Was it a sign that they were married too young? Julie refused to believe it.

  A week later, the father of the groom ran into a local lifeguard who was metal detecting. He told the lifeguard about his daughter in law's recent loss. The lifeguard scoured the beach looking for the ring, but the ring still did not turn up. Out of time, the entire family had to return to their home state of Alaska without the ring.

  A few days passed and the lifeguard ran into another metal detecting buddy who just so happened to be accompanied by his twin brother. Can you guess where the twin brother was from? He was from Alaska.

  The lifeguard and his friend started talking about the ring when his friend exclaimed he found that same ring a few days ago buried under 10 inches or more of sand! Now they just needed to get the ring back home to Alaska. Well how convenient is it that the man who found the ring had a twin brother who was visiting from Alaska? They were able to get in touch with the newlywed's father in law and when the twin returned home to Alaska, he brought the ring with him.

  Sam, the new groom decided to surprise his wife with the returned ring. He wrapped it and put it under their Christmas tree. What a great Christmas present!

  Imagine the journey that ring went through. It slid off her finger and quickly sank in the sand, where it was recovered by a metal detecting enthusiast who had a twin brother from Alaska, who would bring the ring back with him over 3000 miles to be returned to its rightful owner! What are the odds? Incredible!

  Surprise Ring

  Rings are almost always a surprise, but John Hill uncovered one heck of a surprise ring while metal detecting with his three grandchildren on some private farmland in Sampford Peverell, Mid-Devon, England.

  John's metal detector alerted him to some possible buried treasure. He gathered his three grandchildren around to uncover the treasure. They eagerly dug down about 10 inches to reveal a shiny silver ring. Excitement filled the air. They had uncovered a real piece of treasure, but as John got a little closer to their newly uncovered ring, he looked up and told his grandchildren to run!

  The ring he was staring at was the pull ring to a live grenade that was still buried in the earth. John quickly notified the local authorities who sent out the Royal Navy bomb disposal experts.

  The entire area was fenced off and the Royal Navy bomb disposal experts quickly went to work setting a charge on the live grenade. The grenade was detonated and the explosion was heard from a mile away. Luckily, John and his grandchildren were all safe.

  It is still uncertain how the grenade got there, but remains from a 1961 Canberra bomber were recently discovered nearby in a canal. It is possible the grenade came from the cockpit of the old bomber.

  It just goes to show that you never really know what you might be digging up, and it also teaches us the importance of a slow and steady recovery method. Had John been using a large shovel to recover this item, he could have pulled the ring and the attached pin never even knowing it until BOOM! Always be cautious when recovering what you might think is buried treasure.

  17th Century Gold

  Its not every day that you get to recover a 17th century gold mourning ring using a metal detector, but in June of 2010 that is exactly what Peter Amison did! Mourning rings were often worn during this century. They were worn in memory of a loved one who had recently passed away.

  These rings were often made from gold and Jet, a black stone. On some mourning rings, a small lock of hair was placed under the stone. Some mourning rings even featured a portrait. The rings were also inscribed with the deceased person's name and date of death. Mourning rings were purchased before death and left in a will to surviving members of the family. Peter made his find in the Newcastle, England area.

  Peter knew he had recovered a nice ring, but he had no idea the significance of the ring until after he spoke with an antique trader. The ring dates back to sometime between 1600 and 1700. The inscription inside the ring reads, “death has surprised my chiefest jewel.” The ring is made from 10% gold.

  As of this writing, the ring was being stored by the British Museum in London. It was not currently on display. There are a few museums currently trying to obtain the ring and put it on display. Think of the history behind that ring. What an incredible ring find.

  The Raglan Ring

  In 1998 a fellow by the name of Ron Treadgold made a discovery that would become part of history. His discovery was a ring, but it was not just any ordinary ring. The ring he found would be called the largest gold signet ring ever discovered, and he did it using nothing more than a metal detector.

  This incredible ring find was near Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire, Wales in the UK.

  Signet rings were used to make impressions in wax. This was how
people sealed private letters and important documents. If the seal was broken, then it was quite obvious the item had been opened. The impression that was made into the wax also verified that the letter or document was coming from a high ranking official.

  The face of the Raglan ring is designed with a lion on a bed of flowers. This would have been the impression that was left in the fresh wax. There is also an inscription around the lion that reads, “to yow feythfoul.” Today this would translate to, “go get me a pizza.” I am kidding of course. Today this would translate to, “faithful to you.” On one side of the lion the letter W appears and on the other side the letter A appears. These letters would have also appeared on the wax seal.