Mind Blowing Find...considering the circumstances!

[BKuszWhy]

First, let me say I haven't posted in quite a while because, quite frankly, I haven't had a chance to swing in quite a while. I finally got a chance to go uninterrupted this morning and I'm glad I did. I got up at 6 this morning to try to beat the heat and knowing that rains in the past week had made the ground somewhat softer from its recent devil hardness. I decided to head to Cullman, where I grew up and graduated high school from. I started at a local park not far from where I grew up. I found a little over $3 in clad in the hour and a half I was there. By now, it's 8 am, I decide to go to a house nearby the park and ask the owners for permission to hunt. This isn't just any house though. This house is where my best friend lived growing up. It was built in the mid 20's, which meant nothing to me back then, but had a good sized yard. This is also where a bunch of us went just about every Friday night to play basketball when basketball season wasn't going. There would be as many as twelve of us at times and we would play until the wee hours of the morning before quitting. I figured the amount of change we probably lost and the age of the house would make for a good hunt...if I could get permission.

I approach the house and knock on the door. Very quickly, an older gentleman answers the door. I tell him who I am, my past history to the house, and then ask permission to hunt the yard. He very quickly says yes and tells me to take as long as I need and wishes me luck. That makes me three for three when asking permission to hunt. I start my hunt in the front yard on a path from the front door to the mailbox. Several clad coins and two wheats, 1954S and 192?S (can't read the last digit). I start to go around the side of the house to head to the backyard where we used to shoot ball. At the front corner of the house I get a very strong quarter signal on the ATPro, solid 87-89 signal. Ten inches down is a 1963D Washington! This is the deepest silver I've found and I'm really stoked. I continue on towards the backyard and just six steps later I get an 73-75 signal. I figure pulltab or zincoln but decide to dig anyway since trash has been minimal to this point. Four inches down is my very first Injun, a 1881!! Not in the best condition but after the shape some of my wheaties have been in I'm just glad to be able to read a date. No big deal you say...but it gets better. I pick up several more clad coins on my way to the back yard by where we used to play. I get another solid quarter signal not far from where the goal used to be. Expecting another clad quarter since I've already found quite a few. Cut a plug about six inches deep, pull it out, and down at the bottom of the plug is the unmistakeable shine of silver...a 1939 Washington! My oldest Washington and my very first two silver quarter day.

At this point I tell myself that anything else is just icing on the cake. I just didn't realize how much icing was left. To this point I had never found any jewelry with the ATpro but that changed today in a big way. It was about 10:30 and it was getting quite hot but with the amount of signals I was getting I decided to keep going. I get another solid 73-76 signal about 10:45. At this point I'm digging everything because of the coins I've amassed to this point not to mention that earlier IH has me digging everything in this range from now on. The depth indicator shows six inches deep so I cut my plug about that deep and pull it out. Nothing in sight yet but the propointer goes crazy when I put it in the hole so I know I'm close. I reach in the hole, dig out a scoop of dirt in my hand and I instantly feel something hard in the dirt. I lay the dirt on the ground and see the bottom part of a ring. I pick up the ring and slowly knock some of the dirt off the top of it and notice it is a class ring. At this point my heart absolutely stops when I've realized what I have found. I haven't found just any class ring...I have found MY class ring. I ordered it and received it when I was a junior in high school in 1983 and lost it before I even graduated the next year. I did not have a clue where I lost it but had not seen it since 1984! I did not budge from my position on the ground for what must have been ten minutes. I was shaking so bad I could not continue detecting. I put the ring in my pocket, loaded up the equipment and headed home. Totals for the day: $10.38 in clad, my first IH (1881), 2 silver Washingtons (1939 and 1963D), 2 wheats, and my very own class ring...literally!

I knocked out the rest of the dirt from the ring hole when I got home and ran some warm water gently over it. Seeing my initials on the inside of that ring still has me dumbfounded. It still looks pretty rough, it's been buried for 28 years, but I will be taking it to a jeweler to have it cleaned tomorrow. I have been trying to wrap my head around what the odds are of me finding my own class ring after that amount of time. If I never find another thing with my ATPro it has paid for itself and then some. I love this machine and I will be making time, one way or another, to hunt more often...already have Thursday cleared out to go somewhere again.

Please excuse the long story but had to tell it. Also, please excuse the crappy pics and the fact the date is wrong (I don't know how to change it). My wife has a pretty good camera but I'm not very good at taking pics. She wasn't here to take them for me (which is why I had time to hunt in the first place). Took me 35 pics to get these good enough to post.

[Diggin Funatic]

Congrats from another grad of 1984! You had a great day. Hope you have many more! Good Luck!

[Buellride]

THAT is flat out amazing!

Congrats on recovering your class ring and the double silver day!

[Mntnclmbr]

especially with a happy ending!!!!

[Bonesquat]

Great story and thanks for sharing....If you ever feel the urge to have me hunt that yard I wouldn't argue with you. Congrats!

[skeeterbait]

Great digs to bad it doesn't happen all the time but awesome anyway thanks for sharing !!!

[beerdoodle]

Great story, but somehow finding your own lost ring is a lot like kissing your sister............

[FallGuy]

Haha, pretty amazing story

[DetectorAl]

Very cool story and finds!

Addicting thing about this hobby!

[Bobmc1968]

Originally Posted by beerdoodle

Great story, but somehow finding your own lost ring is a lot like kissing your sister............

Agreed, that was a great story but what I really want to know is.... How does beerdoodle know what to compare finding your own lost ring to?

[bazeball7]

That's nuts! Congrats!

[ATProGuy]

Thats a pretty cool story and find. That Indian read a lot higher then Ive ever found with my AT. Almost all are right at 67.

[SeabeeRon]

Great post!!! It's all about the stories!!

[gordonquixote]

Best. Story. Ever!

Congrats! Thanks for sharing.

[BKuszWhy]

Originally Posted by Bonesquat

Great story and thanks for sharing....If you ever feel the urge to have me hunt that yard I wouldn't argue with you. Congrats!

I have Thursday open. Trying to decide whether to go back so soon or hit somewhere else. Still haven't hit that place that I got us permission to go yet.

[BKuszWhy]

Originally Posted by beerdoodle

Great story, but somehow finding your own lost ring is a lot like kissing your sister............

I have two of those creatures you mentioned. I'd rather be sentenced to a lifetime of pulling iron and pulltab signals than do as you suggested.

[cntrydncr1]

What a great story!!

[BKuszWhy]

Originally Posted by ATProGuy

Thats a pretty cool story and find. That Indian read a lot higher then Ive ever found with my AT. Almost all are right at 67.

Surprised me as well. I air tested a couple of the ones I already had when I got the detector last September. They all rang in between 66-70 but the oldest one was a 1897. I don't know if the composition is any different on the older ones...I'll have to check. I can put this one on the ground outside and it still rings either 74 or 75 on every sweep from every angle I try. Maybe the deep patina changes things...I wouldn't think so but have no other explanations.

[beerdoodle]

Originally Posted by Bobmc1968

Agreed, that was a great story but what I really want to know is.... How does beerdoodle know what to compare finding your own lost ring to?

Too hurtful to comment further...................................

[BKuszWhy]

Originally Posted by gordonquixote

Best. Story. Ever!

Congrats! Thanks for sharing.

Sure does make looking for the original owner much easier and more rewarding!!