Lost Ring Found... After 35 Years

Hello, my name is Mark Rubey and I’m an enthusiastic new member of The Ring Finders. I think recovering people’s lost treasures is a great way to make use of my 40 years of metal detecting experience.

I’ve already recovered untold numbers of items before joining this forum but The Ring Finders makes it more likely to reunite owners with what they’ve lost. If you have lost something in a public place, such as the beach, park, school ground, etc, call me as soon as you can to help assure we find the item before someone else does.

If you lost something on private property, there is usually much less urgency in it’s recovery (other than helping you sleep at night!) One important thing to remember is that the less that is done to change the terrain, the better.

If your item was just dropped, it will be within a couple of inches of the top of the ground. If you start digging or moving soil or sand around, you might accidentally bury the item deeper than most metal detectors can reach.

Also, if you lost something in grass or similar, DON’T MOW! Lawn mower blades can destroy your jewelry. The only exception to this is deep weeds or brush where a detector can’t be easily used. In this case, a string type “weed whacker” might be needed to make detecting easier. Call first to be sure however.Most items are not permanently lost but merely haven’t been found yet. To illustrate this is my first blog entry.

While visiting friends and new relatives in Minnesota (with my detector of course!) my wife’s uncle Bob related a story about a lost ring he had given his daughter Diane. He had personally made the ring out of a dime so it had special meaning to Diane. When Diane lost the ring in the front yard, she was heart broken but even though she searched and searched, she couldn’t find it.

After hearing my detector stories and successes, Bob asked if I thought I could find it and Oh, and by the way, it was lost 35 years ago! I told him I’d sure give it a good try and that as long as the ground hadn’t been rototilled or replaced, that it should still be there….just a little further down than if it had just been dropped.

He assured me that it hadn’t so I was off on the hunt and hoped to live up to my billing. Well, I searched that yard for hours and was just about to admit defeat (and have to eat all my words about how great a treasure finder I was) when I got a weak signal only 3 feet from the front door.

Sure enough after removing a plug of grass and some dirt, at about 4-5 inches down, out popped the ring! Smiles and hugs all around and my wife’s choice for a husband started looking better all the time! Here’s Diane and her ring…..