So I’ve got yet another incredible metal detecting/ring recovery story that unfolded over the last couple of days. Time for another thread!

It all started when I was detecting a local park and popped a very worn old 10k gold class ring out of the dirt.

1/X

There were some markings visible on the ring. The word “Trinity” could be seen on the top of the ring face, & there was a mark indicating the gold content. The letters AB and 27 were also visible, indicating a bachelors degree and the class of 1927.

2/X

Inside the band were the initials “JFG.” The most famous Trinity college from that era is in Hartford, CT, so I started there. I found a student who graduated that year and had “JG” initials, so I reached out to people I thought could be his family, but received no reply.

3/X

Finally, 6 months later, I was able to find this student’s son through an old obituary & got in contact with him. Unfortunately, his father’s middle name did not start with an F, & he didn’t think the ring was from the Hartford college. It was time to go in a new direction.

4/X

I decided to examine the ring more closely with a digital microscope, & I found the top of the word “University” on the ring face. This led me to discovering a college from Texas from that era. Luckily they had a digitized library of yearbooks back to the 1800’s.

5/X

I found the 1927 yearbook and went to the Seniors section. There, I found a Jay F. Gamel. Now we were getting somewhere! I googled the name and found he had passed away in 1969 in Texas, having served in both WW2 and Korea as an Air Force Colonel.

6/X

Then I facebooked the last name Gamel and found a man with that last name living 25 miles from me. His age was correct, and on his page I found a memorial post to his father, Jay F. Gamel. We had found our man!

7/X

With some more googling, I was able to find his contact info and get in touch with him. It turns out some tenants of his had burglarized his house over TEN years ago, and this ring was among the items stolen. How it made it into a park 25 miles away is anyone’s guess.

8/X

He was obviously shocked and elated. We made arrangements, and the next day his father’s ring, which he earned 93 years ago, was back in his son’s hands after being missing for over a decade. :)

The end.