mustang8780
Full Member
- Feb 28, 2010
- 141
- 28
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab E-Trac, Minelab GPX-4800, Teknetics T2 SE
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I must admit right of the bat that i found this in July, however I believe it qualifies as a "today's find" post due to what i just found out about it!
I will apologize upfront for the long winded post but those of you who enjoy a little history and a relic that has all that plus gold and diamonds will appreciate what I am about to try and divulge.
Last night we had our 1st annual Christmas dinner for my relic club, Rappahannock Relic Hunters Association. The guest speaker at the show was a period jewelry expert so i thought I would bring the find that I had tucked away since early July. Back in early July i was granted permission to hunt a homesite in Amissville VA that was right off of Rt 211, the house was built in 1800 and i could tell it was built by someone of great wealth because instead of your ordinary small rooms of purpose each room in this house was oversized and had built in bookcases and large closets, very rare for a house built at the turn of the 18th century. Anyway, I found a number of great relics while i was able to detect at the site, including what I thought at the time was my best find from the house...a mexican wars one piece cast silver gilted eagle I. That was until last night. I had found this ring on one of my last visits to the home and it was one of the last targets I dug there, it was under a 200 year old boxwood and gave a very iffy signal on the e-trac...almost didnt dig it but i knew better.
When I flipped the plug expecting an old beat up shot gun shell I was surprised to see gold staring back at me. When I turned the ring over I was even more surprised to see a serpent motif as well as a diamond...'wow' i thought. I field cleaned it a little on spot, it wasnt too dirty as the gold and diamond really didnt retain much of the dirt, and immediately i didnt see any markings on it and was a little bummed about that...so when I brought it home I stuck it in my finds case and basically forgot about it. That was until my buddy told my to dig it out and bring it to the dinner since there would be a period expert there.
This is when things got really interesting...
I showed the ring to the expert and this is basically what she had to say:
"About the ring...the snake/serpent motif got popular around 1837, here and in England, and remained so throughout the Victorian era. Genuine rocks of that size are uncommon in mid-Victorian pieces, which were made in the days before the big South Africa diamond cache discoveries. Still, they DID exist in some high-end early pieces. It’s mine cut, that usually speaks toward early. Also the fact that there is no metal content mark and the ring didn’t appear to have had enough wear to have smoothed them off. This puts the ring in the 19th century and given the other information early 1800's. The snake motif symbolizes eternal love and diamonds symbolizes faithfulness."
I was blown away, I have a ring that predates the diamond rush of the 1860's and a diamond size which was very rare due to how costly and rare they were that early. Its also a piece that relates to the victorian era and is just fantastic.
My best find to date.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do now
Phil
I will apologize upfront for the long winded post but those of you who enjoy a little history and a relic that has all that plus gold and diamonds will appreciate what I am about to try and divulge.
Last night we had our 1st annual Christmas dinner for my relic club, Rappahannock Relic Hunters Association. The guest speaker at the show was a period jewelry expert so i thought I would bring the find that I had tucked away since early July. Back in early July i was granted permission to hunt a homesite in Amissville VA that was right off of Rt 211, the house was built in 1800 and i could tell it was built by someone of great wealth because instead of your ordinary small rooms of purpose each room in this house was oversized and had built in bookcases and large closets, very rare for a house built at the turn of the 18th century. Anyway, I found a number of great relics while i was able to detect at the site, including what I thought at the time was my best find from the house...a mexican wars one piece cast silver gilted eagle I. That was until last night. I had found this ring on one of my last visits to the home and it was one of the last targets I dug there, it was under a 200 year old boxwood and gave a very iffy signal on the e-trac...almost didnt dig it but i knew better.
When I flipped the plug expecting an old beat up shot gun shell I was surprised to see gold staring back at me. When I turned the ring over I was even more surprised to see a serpent motif as well as a diamond...'wow' i thought. I field cleaned it a little on spot, it wasnt too dirty as the gold and diamond really didnt retain much of the dirt, and immediately i didnt see any markings on it and was a little bummed about that...so when I brought it home I stuck it in my finds case and basically forgot about it. That was until my buddy told my to dig it out and bring it to the dinner since there would be a period expert there.
This is when things got really interesting...
I showed the ring to the expert and this is basically what she had to say:
"About the ring...the snake/serpent motif got popular around 1837, here and in England, and remained so throughout the Victorian era. Genuine rocks of that size are uncommon in mid-Victorian pieces, which were made in the days before the big South Africa diamond cache discoveries. Still, they DID exist in some high-end early pieces. It’s mine cut, that usually speaks toward early. Also the fact that there is no metal content mark and the ring didn’t appear to have had enough wear to have smoothed them off. This puts the ring in the 19th century and given the other information early 1800's. The snake motif symbolizes eternal love and diamonds symbolizes faithfulness."
I was blown away, I have a ring that predates the diamond rush of the 1860's and a diamond size which was very rare due to how costly and rare they were that early. Its also a piece that relates to the victorian era and is just fantastic.
My best find to date.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do now
Phil
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cherish that baby! 
