Detect or decorate? The story of a find of a lifetime

By Kevin Lee

Should I or Shouldn’t I

So to take you back to Saturday the 13/11/21, and my conundrum being Sunday tomorrow do I stay home and crack on with to pre-Christmas decorating or go to a club dig. Undecided at bedtime I laid my detecting gear alongside my painting gear at the side of the bed, and decided to leave it up to the elements; if it’s chucking down, I stay at home and crack on with the painting. If it’s not raining I’m gone.

7.15 am alarm rang out and poking my head through the curtains showed a damp misty morning, but not raining… passing and giving the wife a peck on her head I was off before she could grumble disapproval at my decision, a quick bypass to the kitchen for lunch supplies and into the outhouse for my gear.

Meeting up with my club

Arriving at the set meeting place and pre-dig Instructions were given. Also, a club member was presented with a new machine on behalf of the club for all her contributions to charity this year. It was a heart tugging moment to see her face light up, garret 300 to new vanquish; very well deserved in my opinion.

So part of the clubs annual diary is to observe the two minutes silence at 11am, this is done around the pop-up flagpole in whichever field we are on. Not wanting to wander to far from the flagpole, I stayed reasonably close to save a walk back at 10.50.

The find

It was at 10.15 when I had a muddled but good solid signal; a tinge of iron was present but I wasn’t sure. Just to mention, I’m using the Nox 800 field 1 factory set 5 tones apart from my recovery is down to 4. The signal was a one sided 18, I hadn’t bent my knees for a while so I thought to hell with it, have a rest and dig it.

My first sight of this find was a yellow crescent I immediately thought “a newish shotty shell”. How wrong was I…. The next thirty minutes are a blur really, brain overload whatever you want to call it. I’m only thankful of a club member had seen the commotion and filmed it on his phone as he approached. I do remember him asking me to repeat the gold Dance for the camera….. painting pfffft…. boy I made the right decision.

Anyway hope you enjoyed my account of November 14th, Remembrance day this year 2021. A day that will never leave me or be hard to beat.

Reported to the FLO

My find is now safely in the hands of the FLO. I look forward to its final report, which I’m hoping will be available in the next few weeks; I will provide an update to the story, when it’s available. My curiosity is the writing on the inside of the ring and possibly it’s significance to it’s history. No doubt the PAS report will reveal all; let’s hope “made in China” in old English isn’t highlighted… lol

I do know its a Iconographic finger ring probably medieval depicting three saints St Barbara, St Margaret, St Peter.

Thanks to Dunelme Metal Detecting Club

I also feel that some recognition is deserved to my metal detecting club, Dunelme Metal Detecting Club (DMDC), its Chairman Roy Glaholm and Committee for all the hard work that goes behind the scenes, for days like these would never happen and finds of a lifetime would never be made. I have included a picture of the members who were there on the day as we observed the two minute silence just 45 minutes after the ring was found. Why I wasn’t still bouncing around the field is beyond me.