Metal Detecting Recovery of a Sapphire Engagement Ring at Black Beach, Falmouth Massachusetts

21 August 2026.

Overcast today, misty, occasional light rain, a bit windy.  Not a good beach day, but as it turned out it was a good day to find a lost ring.

Colin called me about 4 PM.  His wife had been searching online, trying to find a way to recover a ring that was lost two days ago, and she came across my name as a local Ring Finder.  Colin explained that their vacation was coming to an end and that they were leaving in 2 days.  Would it be possible for me to search for the ring before they left?  The ring was lost in dry sand, so there was no need for me to worry about the time of loss and related tide levels.  I told Colin I could be there right away to do a search.

I learned the story of the ring when I arrived 15 minutes later.  The ring was a very nice sapphire engagement ring that had belonged to Colin’s mother and it had been passed on to Colin’s wife Mel.  Mel had taken the ring off and put it in her pocket for safe keeping at the beach, but when their baby decided to let go a flood mommy’s shorts, the shorts and pocketed ring came off for storage in a beach bag.  Much later, back at the house, there was no ring to be found.  A frantic search of clothing, beach bag, etc. turned up nothing.

So, it appeared that the ring probably was still at the beach, somewhere in the area where they’d been active over a period of several hours.  I queried Colin about the most likely location within that area, and he and some friends cleared out beach chairs and umbrellas that were set up there while I began my search.  It took only a few swaths through the prime area together with recovery of a few promising but false targets (beer bottle caps) before a nice sweet signal proved to be the ring.  I left the ring in my scoop after shaking out the sand and walked over to Colin.  His expression of disbelief and mile-wide smile when he looked inside the scoop were the kind of reward I treasure most of all whenever I make a recovery.

Colin, his friends, and I subsequently had a great discussion about metal detecting finds and returns.  This little adventure really brightened up a gloomy day for everyone involved!