Saturday, December 8, 2012

Silver and Gold!

Silver and Gold!
Well we are into December, the Holiday specials have started and the College Bowl games are not far behind. One of the classic Christmas shows is the animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that dates from 1964. Rudolph and a prospector named Yukon Cornelius help Santa rescue toys from the Island of Misfit Toys and deliver them to children that will love them. All through the story, Yukon Cornelius is searching for silver and gold. The Burl Ives song Silver and Gold comes from this show.

Fast forward to today. It was cool but overcast out, mid-40s. I had things to do, but thought I would head out for a quick treasure hunt at a couple of local schools before I got engrossed in my chores. I fired up the detector and found the usual coins and trinkets at a playground, then moved on to another one. Same pattern there, but then a dime signal turned out to be this nice sterling manatee charm. Okay!  As the hunting season is drawing near the end, I started thinking about what my find of the year would be. I had found 9 nice silver rings and a few silver coins to choose from. I never struck gold this year though, which is odd since I am approaching 3,000 coins dug. And many, many pulltabs, which are in the same range as gold. Oh, and over 250 nickels, which also ring up just like a gold ring. You'd think one of all those gold-range hits could have been a gold ring. But no. Until the last target today as I was walking back to the car.

Solid, just like a nickel or pulltab, worth digging, about 4" deep, just in the grass off a woodchip lot. .....And there she was. Did I talk to it and coax it out of the ground when I saw the possibility of a gold ring? Yes, yes I did, LOL. I was just in shock. A 14K nice softly worn wedding band. Ahhh.  I knocked the dirt out of it and just hefted it my hand to feel the weight. Yes, definitely gold. Then I looked inside to see the 14k mark, which was there. There is also a single first name, so tracking this back to an owner will be near to impossible. I'll poke around though, but it's been there for some time. Anyway, that find of the year thing is taken care of. Ha ha ha!

Today truly WAS the day!