Numil
Elite Member
Being a teacher I'm off for the summer or as Felix puts it "Teachers are not off for the Summer, they are in recovery". I'm off for now unless I decide to retire as well then I'll be off for the rest of my life. So I get out most mornings hitting beaches here and there. This morning was no different and I went to a beach that gets a pounding by other MD'ers on a regular basis.
Luckily I arrived just before sun-up and scored an earring which I thought was silver but turned out to be titanium and a silver Tiffany & Co. silver ring but nothing extra special (like gold) so I thought I would try something different and head to a part of the beach that most MD'ers ignore. This part of the beach is coarse sand and rocks. So I'm working my way thru these rocks when I get a faint but repeatable signal. I start to dig and noticed I had gained an audience. Two Hawaiian Monk seals had pulled up on the beach and were offering their advice as to how to metal detect. Don't you hate unwanted advice?
But I digress, this signal is elusive and hard to get to in this mixture of sand and rocks. All the while I'm thinking "If Craig can do it then so can't I". Finally after 10-15 min of digging and shifting rocks I look in the scoop and see this toasted (more like burnt toast) ring laying there. My first impression is "another class ring" as I had found different one about a week ago. This one is large and heavy and I'm thinking "SCORE!". I get home and begin the process of cleaning and trying to ID this ring. Several baths in the aluminum foil, baking soda and salt and the ring is now grey. An improvement from its original condition but i'm not done yet. The ring is heavily pocked marked and pitted. The band is so damaged I'm thinking its too fragile to clean using normal methods so I put it in the tumbler using the stainless steel polishing media and let it run for about 1 hour.
The tarnish is cleaned off and it reveals it is a class ring of sorts. Its silver, over 11 grams and has a small about of gold on the shield. It says "Hawaii Electric Co. 5 years". I could find no info online regarding this so called an old friend who retired for the HFD. He says they used to award these rings on a firefighter's significant years of service back in the 40's and 50's but thinks they stopped giving away gold and silver maybe in the early 60's. Clearly from the condition of this ring has been in the ocean for decades and found only because I decided to explore areas of the beach forgotten by time. I'll be going back to that area soon! There's got to be more.
Luckily I arrived just before sun-up and scored an earring which I thought was silver but turned out to be titanium and a silver Tiffany & Co. silver ring but nothing extra special (like gold) so I thought I would try something different and head to a part of the beach that most MD'ers ignore. This part of the beach is coarse sand and rocks. So I'm working my way thru these rocks when I get a faint but repeatable signal. I start to dig and noticed I had gained an audience. Two Hawaiian Monk seals had pulled up on the beach and were offering their advice as to how to metal detect. Don't you hate unwanted advice?
But I digress, this signal is elusive and hard to get to in this mixture of sand and rocks. All the while I'm thinking "If Craig can do it then so can't I". Finally after 10-15 min of digging and shifting rocks I look in the scoop and see this toasted (more like burnt toast) ring laying there. My first impression is "another class ring" as I had found different one about a week ago. This one is large and heavy and I'm thinking "SCORE!". I get home and begin the process of cleaning and trying to ID this ring. Several baths in the aluminum foil, baking soda and salt and the ring is now grey. An improvement from its original condition but i'm not done yet. The ring is heavily pocked marked and pitted. The band is so damaged I'm thinking its too fragile to clean using normal methods so I put it in the tumbler using the stainless steel polishing media and let it run for about 1 hour.
The tarnish is cleaned off and it reveals it is a class ring of sorts. Its silver, over 11 grams and has a small about of gold on the shield. It says "Hawaii Electric Co. 5 years". I could find no info online regarding this so called an old friend who retired for the HFD. He says they used to award these rings on a firefighter's significant years of service back in the 40's and 50's but thinks they stopped giving away gold and silver maybe in the early 60's. Clearly from the condition of this ring has been in the ocean for decades and found only because I decided to explore areas of the beach forgotten by time. I'll be going back to that area soon! There's got to be more.