This is a true story and I know this, because it happened to me.
Well a few years ago I was incredibly lucky to find a 17 century, gold, posy ring, whilst out metal detecting. Now you never believe that you can be this lucky and if I'm honest, when I first dug it up I assumed it was a brass ring and put it in my junk bag, with out giving it a second thought. I was a novice with the metal detector at the time and the depth of the ring gave a poor signal and I dismissed it as junk.
OK, so first up. What's a posy ring?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posie_ring
Let's go back to before I found out it was a posy ring and how I nearly ended up in prison.
So the ring was in my junk pocket, and by junk pocket I should clear up what I mean, it's not my ring-pull/tin foil discard pile, but items I think are worth keeping but of no value... "junk pocket"!!
I put the ring with other bits and bobs in a small box and put it at the back of a cupboard to do some research on at a later date, when I have some spare time. We'll a day turned into a week, a week into a month, a month in to two..... Can you see where I'm going with this??
So this pile of "junk" is just sat in the cupboard and eventually Mrs welshstacker decides enough is enough and that I should start chucking out some of the crap I've accumulated. Now at this point I had forgotten all about the ring I had found, so when it pops back out I get that gut feeling that I really should get this checked out.
In my infinite wisdom I decide the best place to get this ring checked out is my local jewellery shop. If anyone will know what it is, if its made of gold, they should!!??!!
I turn up to the jewellery shop and ask if they buy gold jewellery. He takes a good look at the ring and gives it a good going over before handing it back to me and saying "can't find a hallmark, I don't think it's gold". My heart sinks a little bit, I thought I was having an early payday.
So this is when I decide to sell it as part of a job lot of detector find on ebay. I'm honest with my listing and give as much detail as I can and say these are all unresearched metal detector finds. £0.99, with no reserve, what could go wrong? This is where the fun really starts.....
It doesn't take long before the bids start flying in. £100, £200, £250, £400, £500, £800, £1000 and its only been up for a day! What the hell have I got and what the hell have I done?
The next day the messages started to arrive. You know the usual, "how much to end early?" "if I offer you £30 will you end it now".... Then a few that caught my eye
"have you declared this to the police and museum?"
"have you informed the police and coroner? Don't worry I've reported you anyway!"
"I've informed the police you are selling this illegally, you need to call the museum"
OK now I'm shitting myself. Better call the museum in Cardiff and see whats up. I call the switchboard and explain what I've got and they put me through to the correct department.
A fantastic guy called Mark Lodwick answers the phone and I start explaining whats gone on. He says he has heard about my ring already and was expecting my phone call. He informs me that the police have been contacted and I may have a visit. We arrange for me to go to the museum the next day with the ring so he can take a look at it.
He takes one look at it, takes it in his hand and says to me, "take one last look at the ring, I don't think you'll be seeing it again". If I hadn't of turned up when I said I was going to the police would have definitely come knocking. I explain that it had been mistaken for junk and that I had even taken it to a jeweler to identify it. He can see this was a genuine mistake and that he would inform the coroner and police that this was an error and that no further action should be taken.
So if you're wondering why all the fuss, we have a little thing in this country called the 1996 treasure act
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Act_1996
The ring is taken to the museum safe for safe keeping and the process of having it declared as treasure trove has begun....
To be continued.
Interesting.
Cheers cve3. Thanks for calling in
Don't you just love how the government can claim ownership of things? If I try that they call it "theft". Looking forward to the second part of the story :)
It really pisses me off!! There's a great quote by Mark Twain:
"when the rich rob the poor its called business, when the poor fight back its called violence"
Im not the biggest fan of the monarchy and this incident reinforced my feelings about them
What rubbish if you found it it yours to keep as long as its in agreement with the land owner. Basically anything of value we want so we call sell it. Treasure Act 1996 what a scam! 💯🐒
Spot on there. Silly Rules enforced on humans by humans!! What a crazy society we all live in
Its'n is just but that will change soon💯🐒
Bogus!
Really good story though. Got me hooked.
The plot really thickens in the next part. I get to speak to the coroner and everything
Haha! Oh man. Those messages would freak me out too!
It did have me thinking "what have I done??"
It's not a good feeling when your waiting for a knock on the poor from the clowns in uniform with a badge
It really sucks this law but it stops night hawkers, but lesson learned I hope for the future and that you will get all not so sure finds checked out. Mizar do an electronic gold tester for around £120. The guy at the museum sounds like a bit of a tool tbh and that's not very professional. Hope you get it back or get a fair offer from the museum.
This was from back in 2015. I won't tell you what the outcome was, you'll need to find out tomorrow
I am hooked on this story. Look forward to tomorrow's episode
My Precious....
Lord of the Rings joke.
I got that. I might still live in Wales, but we do have power and a thing called a VHS player. I have heard there are such things as colour televisions these days, but for now my 12inch black and white will do 😂
If you can give me a heads up; will there be any mention of 'rim' in Part #2?Ooo, looking forward to Part #2 @welshstacker :)
I can't promise anything but I'll try and slip it in..... 😀
Excellent..... standing by!
:D
Beautiful ring I can't wait for the rest of the story!! 😀
Cheers mate. I like telling it, makes me feel important! Hahaha
Haha
Welsh I told ya to stop grave robbin 😂
Only cause you beat me to it and took all the good stuff
😀😂
Part 2 I’m sure will be very interesting! Can’t wait to see what happened! 👍🏼🍺🥓
Well I'm not in prison now!! #spoileralert
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Good stuff @welshstacker. I have an idea where the story ends, but will wait to see. I prefer the "finders keepers" rule of metal detecting 😊
So do I JB. Now I can understand why items should be "checked over" by a specialist, it could be the long lost ring of some ancient roman emperor and have significant historical value. That I understand, and could see why they would want it. But to claim all items belong to the Crown is a fuc*king joke to me.
Very interesting story.
Rather surprised the jeweller didn't have any idea what it was!!
Presumably he wasn't that experienced?
Great Story ... so far. I can't wait to learn the outcome in part 2.
However, I hate 'to be continued'. Do you know why I have a job? It is because I HATE daytime TV. Soap operas, stories that never end. I can't even watch series TV, like reality shows or "The Walking Dead", which are just Prime Time Soap Operas, with slightly better genre.
But here I am, Hooked on a Daytime, Steem, Story . . . to be continued.
Well, can't wait to find the result.... so far... glad you're not in prison.
It's only a "to be continued" because I started writing it and getting all the info together and just took for ever. It was way past my bedtime when I got that far last night. Mrs welshstacker was huffing and waiting for me, so had to finish it there. Hoping to get it all in the next blog, I want to get all the info in but it did drag on a but and didn't want it to be too long.
That's cool. I'm just joking. No Problem... so far so good. Interesting story.
meep
Bork! BORK!
meep
Meep meep
You're a national hero for finding the lost ring. You'll be on the 6pm news and the queen wants to knight you!
Great story! I am curious about how it ends and can't wait till part 2!
Always keep shh of your stash! Rule #1 ha ha!
Watch the Detectorists?
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cool story! it's a shame you won't get anything for it because of bullshit acts that were written by rich people.