Coin for Switzerland and a ring?

408_Dirt_Fisher

Sr. Member
May 14, 2013
254
26
San Jose, CA
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro & Minelab Equinox 600
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hi Everyone,

Was dinging around my backyard last night and came across these two interesting finds, first one is a coin from Switzerland from 1960 and the second appears to be a ring of some sort, anyone have any ideas on the ring? Or if it is a ring or just junk? Thanks for looking.

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Upvote 5
pretty old finds there. nice!!
 

Looks like an old ring to me ! Cool finds
Glen
 

Very Groovy Ring! Stick a magnet to it, see if it is made of iron. Put it in soapy water overnight, then clean it with a toothbrush. Check insides for stamp marks. Or just take it to a pawn shop or jeweler and ask them, they got all kinds of test stuff..............
 

If its round and can fit on a finger (regardless of what its made of) Its a Ring!
Nice find.
 

We went out of town for the weekend to Lake Tahoe, NV, so when we get back tomorrow, I will soak it in warm water and soap and then scrub it and look for some stamps on the inside, speaking of which I have to pick up a good maganifying glass, my eyes arn't what they use to be :)

Son and I went out this morning to detect on the beach that we are staying at on the lake and man were we getting a lot of false positives, is the 305 not a good detector for the beach? I did not purchase it for that, but figured it should work out. We did manage to find .37 in clad though.

Don, thanks for the info on coin, much appreciated.

-Ben
 

Hi Everyone,

Update on the ring, I was able to clean it up and also bought a self standing 5x magnifier (the eyes are starting to go already) and I was able to find a stamp on the inside which reads "MiW.Germany" any ideas?

Also not 5 feet from the ring I found this thing

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which says the following on the top "Fresno Commandery No. 29" and on the bottom "Fresno, Cal" in the middle is what appears to be a grape vine with grapes on it. Originally I thought it was from a winery in Fresno, CA, but upon doing some research I keep coming up with Freemasonry and the Knights Templar references, does anyone have any clues as to what this might be?

Really interesting if this did have something to do with Freemasonry and Knights Templar and it was right next to a ring that was made in Germany, didn't the Knights Templar start in Germany?

I also just ordered a 6" 17.5 DD coil for my 305, can't wait to get it next week and comb my backyard again :)

Take care all,
Ben
 

Here's some history of the Fresno Commandery No 29 and its relation to the Knights Templar.
http://books.google.com/books?id=bd...v=onepage&q="Fresno Commandery No 29"&f=false
Maybe a membership badge.

According to chroniclers of their early years, the Knights Templar were founded in 1188 by Hughes de Payen, a vassal of the Count of Champagne.
They proposed themselves as a order of fighting monks, who would protect the roadways for pious pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem. They were immediately given an entire wing of the royal palace as their headquarters - a wing that had been built upon the foundations of the Temple of Solomon. Thus they received their name: "the Knights of the Temple."
Don.....
 

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As for false signals on beaches, some beaches have highly-mineralized sands, so you need to fiddle with your detector's settings to minimize that noise. When I feel like digging only coins & jewelry on a beach, I also screen out iron on my detector. But when I have lots of time, I let it detect the iron also -- once resulting in a lovely silver ring which was mixed in with a dozen rusty nails, and more recently resulting in an awesome gold ring with thin iron skin that was easily chipped off by me. That golden ring was in the same sandy hole with half of an iron-corroded spoon. Recheck ALL your holes for more signals, because at my iron-infested beach I dug the badly corroded junk spoon first, then when rechecking that hole, heard a small iffy signal, so dug up a fabulous surprise: 9 gm gorgeous 14k gold ring with groovy design, my first & only gold so far. A lot of California beaches have big and small iron underneath due to past manufacturing, canning, etc. Sometimes that iron leaches out and can corrode metals or in the case of my golden ring, lay a thin iron layer over the fabulous gold. HAVE FUJN AND WELCOME TO T-NET! Andi
 

Are you certain the stamp reads MI? Is it possible that the mark is MT, if so it could be Theodore Muller (1863-1940), but the rest of the mark means West Germany, which dates it to 1945-1990. So that is probably not the correct silversmith. I can't find out whether his shop continued in buisiness after he died. However, it does look like tarnished silver, and 800-900 silver was popular in Germany, usually marked so but not always. It being post WW2, it wont affect it's value to try a little silver polish on it. Definitely have it checked. Very nice design on that ring.
 

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