Thx Oldy for making the point
It's impossible and unreasonable to think that you could find the owners of everything you find. I think it's the attitude that bothers me the most. Of course you are Admin, I'm just a newbie and a nobody so you rule.
El Diablo
Being an admin has nothing to do with my hobby out in the field or water.. I will tell you this, I do feel bad when I find certain pieces that have initials in them.. Case in point, I found a ring dated 6/24/23 and it was 18+ plus inches down, I wondered how long it could have been there and I knew by the size it belonged to a woman.. So I researched the maker of the ring and found out he died on the Titanic bringing back supplies for his business O&B goldsmiths.
OSTBY & BARTON. The ring was made by Ostby & Barton, one of the most well-known jewelry manufacturers of the period. The firm was founded in 1879 and seems to have disappeared about 1950. One of the principals, Engelhart Ostby, perished in 1912 aboard the Titanic, while his adult daughter survived. This is one factor that makes O&B jewelry highly collectible!
Like Oldy said even if there are initials in the ring, unless its a school ring or has been posted somewhere, its pretty much impossible to find the owner.
Every one of my jewelry finds I still have, I don't sell them this is a hobby... do I feel bad people lost this stuff? Sure I do but they took the chance of losing it by wearing it into the water.
I have found items for people and refused to take a reward on a few occasions, the happy smiles were enough of a reward for me... this little girl came up to me after finding her parents keys and said thank you so much we have been here for hours looking for them and you found them in 5 minutes, thats my reward.
I just found a high school ring but its dated 1913 it was very deep telling me its been there a long time, if the person was still alive they would be well over a 100 years old, I don't even know what school, what state its from, just initials inside the ring of the school and the owner.