We found the wrong ring....WOW!!!

30U Plymouth

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Joined
Jan 24, 2009
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Location
Poplar Bluff, MO
This story starts 3 weekends ago.
After receiving a call about a lost ring, Hager and I meet up with a man & his wife to try to find his gold wedding band.
The couple had been married for less than a year and he had lost the ring the previous weekend while canoeing down a river about 50 miles from where I live.
We met up at the canoe rental place and after loading up all of our equipment, the out-fitter took us upstream. After a 2-hour float in kayaks we arrived at the location where the ring was lost.
Hager and I hit the waist high swift flowing water and begin our hunt. After about 3 hours of hunting... we came away with several lures, lead weights, and lots of trash. But the big find was a gold ring that turned out not to be the one we were looking for. This ring had 17 diamonds...WOW.
After another 2-hour float down to the pick-up site, the couple handed me a few bills for coming to look for his ring and we said our goodbyes.
As we were going down the road, I opened up the bills he had given to us and discovered that he had paid us $200 cash.

Here is the rest of the story....
Hager and I went back to the same area the following Saturday and we found the man's lost ring. We then headed into the nearby town and returned the ring to the guy's wife (he was in the hay field working). This was the day before their first wedding anniversary. I have attached a image of the happy reunion:yes:

Oh.... the ring that we found with the diamonds... was appraised at over $4000 dollars. That's right $4000.00

The first two images are of the returned ring. The 3rd image is the ring when found and the last is after the appraisal.
 

Attachments

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  • Back to the owners wife.JPG
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  • Found ring still dirty.jpg
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  • Ring after cleaned  at appraisher.jpg
    Ring after cleaned at appraisher.jpg
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Now that is a WOW story. Really cool to find not one but two lost rings. Too bad you can't find the owner of the diamond. I bet they are really really upset.

BCD
 
Wow! Nice finds all around. That $200 was a very generous payment for your efforts, so I am so glad to hear that you found and returned the right ring. I love stories like these. Congratulations, very cool.
 
The diamond ring had a light coating of green algae growing on it that had to be wiped off.
Any idea how long it would have been in the water for that to happen?
 
Are you keeping the river a secret? don't blame you if you do.
I would think with all the crevices in that ring algae would be able to grab hold and grow pretty quick, as little as a month or 2
 
Are you keeping the river a secret? don't blame you if you do.
I would think with all the crevices in that ring algae would be able to grab hold and grow pretty quick, as little as a month or 2

LOL...We are planning a few more trips.
I was wondering about the growth so we might be able to determine when it was lost. One step into finding the owner, but there isn't much hope that we will.
The out-fitters didn't know of any reported lost rings.
 
LOL...We are planning a few more trips.
I was wondering about the growth so we might be able to determine when it was lost. One step into finding the owner, but there isn't much hope that we will.
The out-fitters didn't know of any reported lost rings.


Just tell me it wasn't the James River party sandbar 2 hours from Shelvin Rock put in. I'd hate to think I missed that ring.
 
Wow, that's the best ring return post I've ever read! Congrats on the great find and the great return.
 
That’s awesome!!!! I’ve been wondering about rivers where people raft and such, going to bump that up on my list of places to go sooner than later! Congrats!
 
I truly believe the deeds you do in this hobby (good and bad) come back to you. You have made a good example of a fine detectorist with this story and you were rewarded!

Great story thanks for sharing!!
 
I truly believe the deeds you do in this hobby (good and bad) come back to you. You have made a good example of a fine detectorist with this story and you were rewarded!

Great story thanks for sharing!!

Thank You..... been MD'ing over 10 years and have returned many rings, but this has got to be the best.
 
Wow, thats immpressive on both finds! I think it counts as 3 rings all together, since the really valuable one is 2 rings attached.
 
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