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WINNER #1
My U.S. Favorite Find for December 2020 is the USN Chief Petty Officer Silver & Gold Ring, found by Robin M. from Oklahoma with his AT Pro.
Robin’s success story: I was happily detecting an empty lot on a hot summer afternoon using my AT Pro. I’d already found my fair share of wonderful sounding bottle caps and pull tabs when I hit a nice high signal under a very large oak tree. I dug a nice plug, pulled out the Pro-Pointer, started poking around and... nothing. I backed up, swung the coil again and found my target had rolled a couple feet from the hole when I’d turned over the plug. As soon as I picked it up I noticed it was heavy. I pulled the target out of the clod it was hiding in and noticed it was a ring. My water bottle gave it a quick bath then I turned it over and over in my hand realizing I’d found a shiny piece of history.
There weren’t any maker's marks inside the ring for identification purposes but I carried it around with me for a few weeks. I was showing the ring to folks seeing if anyone could help me figure out the ring’s history. I eventually showed it to a fellow employee who was also retired from the Navy. He identified it right away that it was a Chief Petty officer’s ring due to the gold fouled anchor and chain on the face of the ring. He stated when an officer reaches the rank of Chief Petty, his men will make him a homemade ring to celebrate the event. Doing a bit of additional searching, the gold seahorses on both sides of the ring also mean he reached the rank of Master Diver. While not official, he figured it was WWI-WWII time period. Would be nice to know the complete history of the ring but to me it was a pretty special find on a very hot summer afternoon!!!
Robin M. WINS an ACE Apex metal detector. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Robin’s success story: I was happily detecting an empty lot on a hot summer afternoon using my AT Pro. I’d already found my fair share of wonderful sounding bottle caps and pull tabs when I hit a nice high signal under a very large oak tree. I dug a nice plug, pulled out the Pro-Pointer, started poking around and... nothing. I backed up, swung the coil again and found my target had rolled a couple feet from the hole when I’d turned over the plug. As soon as I picked it up I noticed it was heavy. I pulled the target out of the clod it was hiding in and noticed it was a ring. My water bottle gave it a quick bath then I turned it over and over in my hand realizing I’d found a shiny piece of history.
There weren’t any maker's marks inside the ring for identification purposes but I carried it around with me for a few weeks. I was showing the ring to folks seeing if anyone could help me figure out the ring’s history. I eventually showed it to a fellow employee who was also retired from the Navy. He identified it right away that it was a Chief Petty officer’s ring due to the gold fouled anchor and chain on the face of the ring. He stated when an officer reaches the rank of Chief Petty, his men will make him a homemade ring to celebrate the event. Doing a bit of additional searching, the gold seahorses on both sides of the ring also mean he reached the rank of Master Diver. While not official, he figured it was WWI-WWII time period. Would be nice to know the complete history of the ring but to me it was a pretty special find on a very hot summer afternoon!!!
Robin M. WINS an ACE Apex metal detector. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
