I have returned to relives with absolutely no appreciation. it took me 3 years to track down the owner and relatives of a 1947 USAF pilot ring and after I sent it down south, I didn't even get a thank you from them......
..... I have never heard any reply nor do I know whether the principal kept the ring or had given it to the student. .....
Hey scuba and franklin: It's quite common to read good reunion stories on our hobbyist "honorable mention" posts, right ? Thus at first glance, it's a fun sherlock holmes mystery solved. And an honorable thing to return. And the typical story ends in a hug, a thankyou letter, or sometimes even a reward (though none required).
HOWEVER, there are ample stories of exactly what you guys describe too. I too have spent many hours tracking down the owner's of personal things , via initials, dates, serial #'s, etc... Like a Korean war/cold war era silver military ID bracelet. Tracked down to the surviving widow, living in an assisted elderly care type home. The front desk would not cooperate to allow me to phone into the specific room, or to let me know the children's contact info (to get it to whomever in the family I could). So I tell the convelescent home people the story which I would have ASSUMED would raise their sympathy level to understand why I'm trying to track down the man's wife or kid's. But nnneeooohh. Once they heard that "I'd found the man's such & such", they simply say "send it to us, and we'll pass it on to them". Because I think they simply assume this is some sort of prank call, or sales pitch, or ?
I eventually tracked down a daughter's name , and finally got her on the phone. She gave me her address, and said she'd make sure it got to the family's heirlooms. So I mailed it off, and never got so much as a thankyou, no thankyou, or kiss my %#@ in return. Never got reimbursed for my postage, etc...
Another time I heard of a guy who tracked down a ring owner, that was in a city several hour's drive away. After much research had actually pinned down a phone #. Calls the guy, but can only get a sentence or two into it, before the guy hung up on him ! (apparently thinking it was a sales call, or a cruel joke, etc...). Because so many years had passed, that perhaps the ring-owner simply forgot all about ever having lost a ring.
But the md'r persisted and called back, etc.... FINALLY it dawned on the ring owner that "this guy has my ring". So without even-so-much as a thankyou, tells the md'r to "mail it to me". To which the md'r says "send me a SASE and I'll do that". To which the ring owner says "If you don't send it to me, I'm going to call the police". So at that, the md'r now hung up the phone in disgust. But then got the willies thinking "Oh cr*p, are the cops going to show up at my door now ??"
And I know of multiple other stories where it went totally south.
And in the eyes of the law, any of us that FAIL to turn in items worth over $100 (or whatever your state's value-cutoff is for L&F laws) is breaking the law. So despite someone lack of gratitude, we are technically still under an obligation to turn in all jewelry to police station L&F dept's. EVEN jewelry with no markings or initials. These laws were born out of wandering cattle laws in the 1800's, and technically apply to jewelry we find today.
So let me ask you : Whenever you tune in to the beach forum, and see the various show & tell posts of rings found by md'rs in our ranks: How many of them do you think are promptly trotting off to the police station lost & found dept. to carry out this law ?? AT BEST some of us might try our repatration attempts if we find OUR OWN inscribed info (like on class rings). But even then a bunch of us don't even bother with that anymore.
As for the gold coin....if it was found out of place, like a modern park or fresh drop on the beach, I'd run it in a lost and found ad. The responder would have to know everything about it and where it was lost to claim it.
The Sheriff TOOK MY FLAG. Now that is a hoot right there! Should be interesting to say the least
