Compadre out...F2 back in...GOLD AND DIAMONDS!!! Update-Appraisal below...

DIGGER27

In Memory Of
Joined
Feb 13, 2010
Messages
15,649
Location
Alabama, by way of Detroit, Tampa Bay, Alabama and
Had it appraised...Go to post # 59 2nd page...




So I just about gave up hunting for the winter because my last hunts found mostly frozen ground.
Today it was sunny and back up to the 50's so I thought I would give it one more try.
Also the wife was going for a new job and they contacted her today and said she got it and offered her $7000 more per year than she was asking for.
I figure we are having a real lucky day and that cinched it, I am going to try my luck.
I picked out a park I had hit before because it was pretty old but really because it had a nice size basketball court and was a little more protected from the wind so I hoped the digging would be easier.
These basketball courts have been really good to me lately, and the last time I was here I was using the F2, but with the bigger 8" coil.
All the great stuff I found at these courts in the past, (silver and gold), was with the sniper, so I put the Compadre that I have been using for over a month away, grabbed my F2 and away I went.
I found silver and gold and my oldest coin ever with the Compadre in the last few weeks so he has done his job and deserved a well earned rest.
I actually love having different detectors to use, it keeps down the boredom and I am a little superstitious so if one stops producing I figure the mojo moved into another.

I got to the site, started hunting around several areas testing the dirt and was glad to find most of it was not frozen and still digable.
I had knocked out iron but the F2 was pretty jumpy due to some power lines surrounding the park, and there was lots of trash in the ground and a ton of it seemed to be tiny bits of foil so I knocked that out too and even lowered the sense a bit which is something I rarely do.
Now it was much more quiet and I was still digging targets at 5" deep or more and I was looking for big gold so these settings were fine.
I can't stand waiting for my first gold of the year and it always drives me crazy waiting to hit some so I really wanted to get my first for the year and relax for awhile.
I know gold rings come in at foil, my last one I dug came in there, but I figure today was going to be a lucky day and I was going to dig all solid, repeatable nickel, tabs and zinc signals hoping for lightning to strike.

I wandered around a picnic pavilion, some parking lots and sidewalk strips for an hour and I found a Weblo neck slide and some clad but no jewelry of any kind so it was time to get over to that basketball court.

I searched the area near one of the baskets but last time here I gridded this area and did a good job because I got very few signals at all so I moved around to the side where the players probably sit when they take a break.
I hit this side with the 8" coil before too but without gridding so there still a few signals to be dug especially in the trash areas.
I dug a few tabs and some can slaw and then I got a very nice 32 on the F2.
It was solid and loud and stable with no jumping at all so I thought this might be a nickel but more probably a very shallow and flat sta-tab because in this park the surface tabs were 35's but a few I dug out of the ground were lower 30's.
Something about this tone was still sweeter than normal so I had a thought,(wished, anyway), that it just might be gold, too.
I dug a small plug, turned it up and in that plug about 2" deep I saw the band and knew it was a ring...but it was silver looking and not gold colored.
Couldn't be silver at that low number, I thought, and for a moment I also had a thought that it could be nickel-silver which would be fine at any other time but right now would just break my heart.
I dug it out of the plug and turned it to the front and saw 4 diamonds and they really shined in the sunlight.
I had to push the dirt out of the center and cleaned out all the dirt and looked for a mark all the time doing my usual chant..."Be gold...Be Gold...Be Gold".

I saw an A and three numbers on the band and then turned it around till I saw 2 more marks, a diamond shape with some letters that were too small to see and 2 other letters that looked like HK.
HK?
Luckily I had a magnifying glass with me and looked closer at those marks and it wasn't HK, it was 14k!
Man, I had just found my first gold of the year, my first ever white gold, and from the way they shined in the sun they had to be 4 real diamonds and of a pretty decent size, too.
I got home and cleaned it up a bit and looked closer at those diamonds and had another surprise waiting for me.
The square pieces separating those four diamonds weren't gold...they were more diamonds!
5 lovely baguettes that don't look like they have a scratch on them at all.
I will have these diamonds tested at my MD club meeting this Sunday to make sure, but all the clues say this thing is loaded with real diamonds, and that means someone was very unhappy to lose this thing, but another person was ecstatic to have found it!
6.7 grams of gold, but add in all those diamonds and this thing has to be worth way more than the $212 melt price.
If so, this is absolutely the nicest ring I have dug so far and should keep me flying for awhile till that gold fever rears it's head again.

P.S.
Since luck is with us I made sure I bought a few lottery tickets and the wife and I are headed to the casino tonight for a nice buffet to celebrate, but we are going to throw a few coins in those slots for the heck of it and I sure hope our good luck holds out for the rest of the day!
 

Attachments

  • P1030784.jpg
    P1030784.jpg
    55 KB · Views: 1,891
  • P1030796.jpg
    P1030796.jpg
    57.6 KB · Views: 1,909
  • P1030800.jpg
    P1030800.jpg
    67.2 KB · Views: 1,903
Congrats on your first gold for 2013. Too bad it's so ugly! LOL I'm getting an F2 sometime soon, maybe even tomorrow. I hope it likes gold the way your machines do. : ) Good luck on future hunts.
 
Fabulous. Which park is this again? Might have to make a road trip and go see my sisters up in 'lathe.
 
OMG!! Those baguettes are canary diamonds!! Get that sucker appraised and INSURED!!

Wow! Just... wow!

SageGrouse
 
Captan Digger back in the game folks watch out! He makes it looks easy and I admire this guy for diggin the signals he does.
 
Holy cow! That wasn't even two weeks since you hung up the coil for the year. I was way off on guessing a month. :lol:

Congrats on a fine looking ring. I enjoy your write ups as I feel I'm right there watching in real time.

Here's to a few more in 2013!
G2M
 
Congratulations Digger27! I'd say it looks close to the third ring on the second row here:

http://www.angara.com/rings/diamond-rings.html?p=2&order=position&dir=asc

Thanks all...and thanks Gary for that link.
My wife and I were discussing this thing last night and she told me it is a man's wedding ring.
Like duh...I didn't have a thought in my head that this was one of those, I thought it was just a cool ring.

No inscription, but I am going to try to track down that hallmark today and get some more info if I can.

Ok, found a site that has something very similar but a little thicker and about 2 grams more in weight.
Nice price on this thing.
 

Attachments

  • front.jpg
    front.jpg
    43.9 KB · Views: 1,705
Phenomenal find and awesome write-up as always. Digger works hard at this, and earns every piece. Quite inspirational to me as a newbie! As an aside, he's been very generous about sharing his time and advice whenever I have questions. I love this forum!
 
congrads on the fine ring. my wife would have the diamonds out and reset in a ring for her in a heart beat. great find. HH blev
 
I know where some basketball courts are and gonna for sure keep it in mind. They have served you more than very well.
 
Back
Top Bottom