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The Relic Ring

Numil

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
1,624
Location
The Island of Honolulu
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.
 

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Dang that's one heck of a clean up job! Neat ring! Looks like a great but hard area! We don't get seals watching us here like that, kinda neat :) Congrats on the Tiffany & Co silver!
 
:dingding: Designer silver is as good as gold in my books! Good luck on the summer recovery too!! :lol:
 
Man, the pitting on the silver ring is something else (great cleaning job) and just goes to show how long it has been lost; 70 yrs more or less, WOW. Great snag.

2019
Gold - 10
Silver - 37
Coins 1697
 
Dang that's one heck of a clean up job! Neat ring! Looks like a great but hard area! We don't get seals watching us here like that, kinda neat :) Congrats on the Tiffany & Co silver!

A CLR soak and the baking soda - salt - aluminum foil in water along with the polishing tumbling did wonders for it. HH and GL

:dingding: Designer silver is as good as gold in my books! Good luck on the summer recovery too!! :lol:

Thanks Felix I found out that this ring was made in the late 1930's. the made emblems and a few of the firefighters made them into rings. So even a more rare item.

Nice ring..... and yes that was a good clean up on it.

Thanks Dew

Wow, sweet finds and nice T&Co. ring too. Thats a huge score. Congrats!

Thanks Salt HH and GL

very cool find nice job cleaning the ring

Thanks Brnco! HH and GL

Nice finds Numil! Congrats on the T&Co!

Thanks Slim always nice to see that T & Co on any jewelry

Finding things we all want to find!

Thanks Jack HH and GL

Awesome finds man, both are really nice!

Thanks Zee HH & GL

Congrats on those neat finds!

Thanks Twizzler!

Nice finds, especially the Tiffany!

Thanks Vermon! always happy to hear from you.. HH and GL

That Tiffany ring is likely worth more than the equivalent weight in 14k

Some day I'll sell them... but not today! Thanks for looking and HH and GL

Congrats

boy that is quite a cleanup job on that ring, T&co silver is definitely a premium item congrats

CLR Soak, Baking Soda, Salt, Aluminum foil and ho water can work work miracles on silver.

That's what I call a "Double Seal of Approval"!

Thanks Key! GL and HH

Nice! Been down there for a while.

Latest research says its been there since 1938!

I would be interested in a trade for the 5 year ring I have a uncle in Hawaii that would love that. PM me thanks

No promises but PM me....

Man, the pitting on the silver ring is something else (great cleaning job) and just goes to show how long it has been lost; 70 yrs more or less, WOW. Great snag.

2019
Gold - 10
Silver - 37
Coins 1697

Latest research says it was lost about 1938 since they stopped issuing the emblem and the firefighters turning them into rings.
 
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