Update on the old gold ring I found
Zot
Posts: 825 ✭✭✭
Not intended to be a "sales pitch" while the July jewelry poll is on - just want to update you on the developments:
Some time ago I posted this gold ring, which I found water hunting in water about 4 feet deep. I read the inscription as "Eirik died on the 19th July 1725".
I submitted it to the national board of antiquities for review, together with a bunch of detailed pictures, maps, description of conditions at the site etc.
Got a call today from their expert. His assessment:
* The ring appears real, fitting the time period in question
- The style of the ring and the style of the writing matches
- The stamp is probably "BM", which matches a Swedish (Stockholm) goldsmith who was active at the time. It was quite rare for small gold items such as this to be stamped, but it was done occasionally
- The year appears to be "1725" [which is what I thought as well]
* The purity is likely to be 0.780 or higher
* The name is not "Eirik", but rather "E B K" (initials). It was common to use ":" (colon) as a separator for words/initials back then. ":" is also used between other words in the inscription, and this gives the impression of a previous inscription having been removed. There probably wasn't one. [This was quite a coincidence by the way, as Eirik is a perfectly common name, although I misread the "B" for an "R"]
* There are two options for who wore the ring
- Most likely case: The widow/widower [my assessment: based on the size of the ring, probably widow].
- Other possible case: Another person who attended the funeral. In the case of very wealthy families, gold rings with inscriptions were sometimes handed out at the funeral to the mourners
* The ring will go bye-bye (as expected)
- The National Museum wants to acquire it for their collections ('wants' is just a way of expressing it though, the finder doesn't have any say here). These are rare finds. They will contact me later for details.
These aren't collected in the same way as coins or larger silver/gold items, so determining a 'value' is tricky. He was talking about "hundreds rather than thousands of Euros" (1 Euro is approx 1.2 US$). The museum will probably offer a modest amount for it (technically they are even entitled to only offer melt + a small premium), which wouldn?t be much as the ring weighs a whopping 2.07 grams..
I'll probably end up just donating it to them, in which case I at least get a diploma for it
I'm not too disappointed about their decision. The fact that they'll snag it means that it was a good find
Even more importantly, I want to establish a good relationship with these people. They hold the key to countless sites that are otherwise off-limits. Many of these are "less interesting" from a historical perspective, but would be dream sites for me. If I show that I can recover stuff without damage to the items or the site, and ability to document the finds properly - who knows what detecting opportunities could open up in the future?
For me, it's all about the hunt, not about holding on to the loot (which only end up in folders/boxes anyway). I'd be bugged if I lost the pictures of it though, so I better copy them to some backup hard disks/memory sticks straight away!
Happy hunting!!
-Z
(Edited; some apostrophes and quotation marks showed up as questionmarks on one of my machines, while another machine shows the message properly. Go figure. Did anyone else see all these questionmarks initially?...)
Some time ago I posted this gold ring, which I found water hunting in water about 4 feet deep. I read the inscription as "Eirik died on the 19th July 1725".
I submitted it to the national board of antiquities for review, together with a bunch of detailed pictures, maps, description of conditions at the site etc.
Got a call today from their expert. His assessment:
* The ring appears real, fitting the time period in question
- The style of the ring and the style of the writing matches
- The stamp is probably "BM", which matches a Swedish (Stockholm) goldsmith who was active at the time. It was quite rare for small gold items such as this to be stamped, but it was done occasionally
- The year appears to be "1725" [which is what I thought as well]
* The purity is likely to be 0.780 or higher
* The name is not "Eirik", but rather "E B K" (initials). It was common to use ":" (colon) as a separator for words/initials back then. ":" is also used between other words in the inscription, and this gives the impression of a previous inscription having been removed. There probably wasn't one. [This was quite a coincidence by the way, as Eirik is a perfectly common name, although I misread the "B" for an "R"]
* There are two options for who wore the ring
- Most likely case: The widow/widower [my assessment: based on the size of the ring, probably widow].
- Other possible case: Another person who attended the funeral. In the case of very wealthy families, gold rings with inscriptions were sometimes handed out at the funeral to the mourners
* The ring will go bye-bye (as expected)
- The National Museum wants to acquire it for their collections ('wants' is just a way of expressing it though, the finder doesn't have any say here). These are rare finds. They will contact me later for details.
These aren't collected in the same way as coins or larger silver/gold items, so determining a 'value' is tricky. He was talking about "hundreds rather than thousands of Euros" (1 Euro is approx 1.2 US$). The museum will probably offer a modest amount for it (technically they are even entitled to only offer melt + a small premium), which wouldn?t be much as the ring weighs a whopping 2.07 grams..
I'll probably end up just donating it to them, in which case I at least get a diploma for it
I'm not too disappointed about their decision. The fact that they'll snag it means that it was a good find
Even more importantly, I want to establish a good relationship with these people. They hold the key to countless sites that are otherwise off-limits. Many of these are "less interesting" from a historical perspective, but would be dream sites for me. If I show that I can recover stuff without damage to the items or the site, and ability to document the finds properly - who knows what detecting opportunities could open up in the future?
For me, it's all about the hunt, not about holding on to the loot (which only end up in folders/boxes anyway). I'd be bugged if I lost the pictures of it though, so I better copy them to some backup hard disks/memory sticks straight away!
Happy hunting!!
-Z
(Edited; some apostrophes and quotation marks showed up as questionmarks on one of my machines, while another machine shows the message properly. Go figure. Did anyone else see all these questionmarks initially?...)
Minelab: GPX 5000, Excalibur II, Explorer SE. White's: MXT, PI Pro
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Comments
Generous to the museum for donating it. Maybe you can cage some free passes or a year membership?
I agree with your thoughts about keeping the find. You'll have other things to remember it by (like the pics).
You could even print out some of those pics for your finds album... I did that when one of my coins was determined to be "coin find of the year" at my club and they provided a plaque.
Will they send you a certificate (maybe frame that?)
<< <i>You could even print out some of those pics for your finds album... I did that when one of my coins was determined to be "coin find of the year" at my club and they provided a plaque. >>
Yep! I'm planning to print something out (pics + info). I took a lot of pictures before I submitted it. That'll be a fun task on some rainy day.
<< <i>Will they send you a certificate (maybe frame that?) >>
Yes, they will. However, I'm not holding my breath about it being something I'd want to frame.
For example, their paperwork for reporting finds looks like something that was came from an old fax machine with the paper not fed straight either. I could barely read the text, and almost got seasick when writing along the so-called lines provided...
I'm expecting it to be:
a) A butt ugly piece of paper that's a copy-of-the-copy-of-(insert additional "copies" here)-of the original, the copying being done using 1970's technology - and without any personalization, or
b) Something cheesy that some holiday worker put together (this would be worse still)
We shall see! These people know history, but I just have a feeling they might be a bit lacking in the graphic design department.
Bravo Zot!!
There is one site here in coastal Georgia that I have thought of going to and offering to detect and donate all my finds to their museum, just for the fun of detecting it. Maybe they'd even let me keep a coin or two.