I am almost ashamed to admit this, but I fell into a rut as far as detecting goes. All of my trusty old sites seemed hunted out and I found myself digging clads at the local playground when I should have been out hunting silver.

It had been unusually dry in this part of the country, so rather than wear myself out trying to dig in the cement-like-soil, I pretty much stayed home and read about other people's finds.

My wife came home from work one day and told me about a conversation she had with a customer. Apparently the young lady had lost a diamond engagement ring a year or so back while doing yard work and was looking for someone with a metal detector to help find it. Well, my wife knew how much I wanted to find something returnable so she volunteered me for the job.

I called Mendy that evening and got all the information she had concerning the loss. I called the owner of the home where the ring was lost and explained to him who I was and what I wanted to do. Apparently the homeowner and his wife were good friends with Mendy and they were very excited at the possibility of locating the ring.

When the loss was discovered everyone began looking for it. The plain gold wedding band was soon recovered but the one-half carat diamond ring, an heirloom from two generations past, was never found. They tried looking for it on many occasions with no luck. This was beginning to sound like fun!

As luck would have it, the weather took a turn for the better. Thanks to one of the many tropical storms to hit the Gulf region this summer, we finally received a good, soaking rain. After the sky cleared, I headed out to look for the ring.

When I arrived at the house, I found the owner out front working on the gutters. I introduced myself and we visited for a few minutes. He offered to show me where the previous searches were made and where the wedding band was found. We walked out into the front yard alongside the driveway. The homeowner stood on a bare spot as he spoke. When he finished relating the story of the loss I headed out to my van and returned with my GTAx 1000 and began hunting.

I started at the bottom of the driveway and worked my way slowly toward the house. I knew the ring would be near the surface, so I set the sensitivity at around 50%, notching out everything above "Penny." The ring was a fourteen-karat yellow gold band with a white gold mounting. Mendy showed me another ring of a similar design so I knew it would not read very high on the meter. I was looking for shallow pull tab signals.

The first signal came within seconds and proved to be a half-eaten zinc cent. I HATE those things! A few feet further up the drive produced a very promising signal. The meter showed "Pull tab" at one-plus-inches. "Oh boy, this is IT!"

I cut a plug and rechecked the hole. No, the target was in my hand! I broke open the plug and there it was, a pull tab!

After filling the hole I finished my first pass and turned to head back down the drive. I had just come to that little bare spot where the homeowner stood when greeting me, when I got another beep: pull tab at two-plus-inches. That sounded a little deep, but I was digging everything! I cut out my plug and checked it. I had the target in my hand. I cracked it open and the sunlight bounced off a beautiful half-carat diamond! That is right, he had been standing right on top of it all the time!

Even now I am smiling just thinking about it. My hands were shaking (you have to understand I had never found a gold ring up to this point!) and I think I let out a yell. I filled the hole and slipped the ring on my pinkie as I headed for the house. The owner stepped out on the porch and asked if I was giving up already. I had only been there 10 minutes.

I said, "No. I'm done. Here it is!" and held out my hand. He wanted to call Mendy right then and tell her the good news but I persuaded him to let me do it in my own way.

After cleaning up the ring and taking a few photos, and also scanning the ring on my flatbed, I called Mendy at home. I told her I had driven by the house and from looking at the size of the yard I would need some idea of where she thought it was lost and where they had already searched. I also had her describe the ring, just in case. She obliged me by describing the ring perfectly. I said in my calmest voice, "Yep, that is the ring I found today."

There were a few awkward moments of silence before she said "You found it? Excuse me, I have to scream: "HE FOUND IT! HE FOUND IT!"

I could hear her daughter in the background repeating those same words. We arranged to meet the next day so I could return the ring to her. I called our local paper and they were eager to be there and write the story.

I arrived a few minutes early and just sat there in my van looking at the ring. I took it to a jeweler on the way and he appraised it at nine-hundred to a thousand dollars. He said it looked to be nearly one-hundred-years-old. The center diamond was nearly one-half carat. He described the quality of the stone as "exceptional."

It is hard to tell from the scans but there are actually five diamonds in the square mounting of the ring. The mounting and shank were both cracked, which helps explain why I believe the ring was not found in the previous attempts. I believe it had fallen stone first into the grass, and was stepped on as they searched for it. That would also explain how it got nearly 3 inches deep in just a year.

The reporter showed up just minutes before Mendy. I told her my story and showed her the ring. When Mendy arrived I handed her a small ring-box. She opened it up and began to cry! I guess the reporter was a bit too interested in what was happening, because she forgot to take pictures! Mendy gave me a huge hug and just kept saying, "Thank you, thank you."

That ring is the most valuable item I have found with my detector to date, but let me tell you this, my friends, when my heart swelled up and nearly burst with pride at being able to help someone like that, I found the best treasure I ever will. If you have not returned a ring or other item to its owner, get out there and do it! It is a feeling you will never forget!

View of Mounting: http://www.cyber-worlds.net/Tgriff/images/ring2.jpg

View of side: http://www.cyber-worlds.net/Tgriff/images/ring.jpg