Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
If you keep detecting, you'll find a lot of duplicates. There are a few types of rings that are very common. I mentioned and showed one very common type of girls ring the other day. That type is shown here.
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| Type 1. |
I think these have a name, but I can't think of what they call them.
I found one of those after a girl in the water told me she had just lost one. I remember that one more than the others of the same type that I found. I guess the personal part of it made it more memorable. I don't really know how many of these that I've found, but several.
I've found more of the first type - plain yellow gold.
Another very common type of ring that you'll find is the Claddagh ring. You'll probably find more than one of those if you detect very much. I think the most common of those to find are plain silver or gold, although there are also fancier versions with gems etc.
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| Claddagh Ring. |
Wikipedia says,
The Claddagh ring is a traditional Irish ring given which represents love, loyalty, and friendship (the hands represent friendship, the heart represents love, and the crown represents loyalty).
The design and customs associated with it originated in the Irish fishing village of Claddagh, located just outside the old city walls of Galway... The ring, as currently known, was first produced in the 17th century.
Being made as early as the 1600s means that it can be difficult to tell the age of one of those.
A lot of ring designs have not changed for centuries. And religious images, such as those used on medallions, haven't changed much either.
Some marks will give you a clue. For example, the "sterling" stamp was first used in the early 1800s.
You can sometimes tell by the style of the item. The way they cut diamonds has changed. So have settings. And, of course, you can sometimes identify the styles such as Victorian or Art Deco.
In metal detecting as in life, there are those Kodak moments. By Kodak moments, I mean those highly detailed indelible memories that tend to pop into memory more frequently than most. They appear as vividly as if they happened just yesterday no matter how long it has actually been.
I don't know if those images are the most important events of a person's life. I doubt it, but even if they are not the most important in determining the direction or turn of a person's life, but put together they do seem to provide a synopsis, something like a scrap book or photo album. Maybe the meaning of the memory emerges or develops over time.
If you've been detecting very long and think about your metal detecting experiences, I'm sure that some of your metal detecting Kodak moments will readily come to mind. I've described a few of mine in this blog.
One that comes immediately to my mind is a diamond ring that sparkled in my scoop as I lifted a full scoop. The scoop was still under a foot or two of water when I saw the flash.
What made that moment so memorable might have been the beautiful colors and the amazing beauty of the day. I didn't know that the ring was valuable yet, so that couldn't be what made it so memorable.
The water was so clear, the sky so blue, and in my mind's eye I can still see the sparkle of that nearly three-karat solitaire diamond in the sand in my scoop as it flashed in the already sparkling water.
Besides the overall visual beauty of the scene, I think what imprinted that particular moment in my memory is how the flash excited my imagination. Maybe if I knew what was in the scoop, even if it was valuable, it might not have excited my imagination so much. Certainty might have replaced the excitement of the unknown.
There are other kinds of Kodak memories in my life. Some are more videos than stills, and some more audio than visual. Some are more complex events or stories. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that they reoccur in memory more frequently than most and do not fade with the passing of years.
Maybe it is the repetition that keeps them fresh and clear, or maybe they distort over time more than we realize. I hope not.
What are your metal detecting Kodak moments?
The BART & Somebody ring that I mentioned that was found and shown on Kelly and Michael the other day turned out to be BART and RACHAEL. It was claimed by a couple that said they were vacationing in Florida some years ago when it was lost.
I've been meaning to talk about how the sand in the shallow water moves, just haven't gotten around to it yet. I should have taken better photos the other day to illustrate how the sand is moving in and filling what is left of the dip.
On the Treasure Coast we now have a small surf and ever so slightly increasing tides.
The bright sun and weather reminds me of the day I talked about above.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
