It’s that time of the season when I await the harvest of the maize here in Belgium. While the maize still stands tall, it gives me a chance to search the far corners of unexplored pasture land. I did not have too much time to search this particular day, I therefore headed for a little field I had searched before and had some interesting finds, including a couple of rings. One copper ring and a silver child’s communion ring. I wondered if this patch could have held religious events, or maybe just an area that waste was once spread. Either way, with the limited time available, this was where I headed. After a couple of hours I had not found much, a few few eroded contemporary coins, musket balls and so on. With time running out, I made a circle and headed back. I was about to exit the field when I received a sharp and clear signal on my Minelab Equinox 800 which stopped me in my tracks. I dug down and popped over my grass sod. I could see what looked like a ring. I stayed calm, so many times I have been fooled by aluminium type. It quickly became apparent I had an 18 ct gold wedding band ring, a beautiful ring that glinted in the sun. I then checked the inside of the ring where I saw a clear inscription of two names and the marriage year. The inscription looked like it had been inscribed yesterday. F. Verstrepen J. De Cnodder 14. 6. 52. I searched for a few more signals and then headed back to show the game keeper/miller called Frans, I hoped he would know the families connected to the ring. He made a note of the details and said he would contact his sister Irene, he was sure she would find out and promised that in a couple of days we would be in contact with family connected to the ring. I hoped the owner would be still alive, although I imagined I could very well be looking for his children. One day later and I received a call from Frans, he told me his sister had indeed tracked down the children of the ring owner. Irene is a wealth of knowledge on families and history to do with the local area. The children Vera and Filip were astonished to receive a call concerning their fathers missing wedding ring. It turns out they had never seen him wear a wedding ring and therefore did not recall him having one, or ever losing one. They recounted after their parents Felix and Jeanne were married in 1952, he worked for a time as a forester in the area where I had found the ring. It seems Felix lost the ring almost 70 years ago shortly after 1952 when he married his wife Jeanne. Most likely between 1952 - 1953. After Jeanne passed away, her matching wedding ring to the ring I found was given to her daughter Vera. Felix and Jeanne’s son Filip did not have a ring, it did not exist,…until now! A meeting was setup through Irene on Wednesday 2nd of September, the day after I found the ring. As we met and I handed over the ring, the energy was immense. Filip immediately put on the ring and it fitted perfectly. A beautiful moment to see how happy Filip and Vera were, the ring was back with the rightful people, where it truly belongs. Both Filip and Vera have their parents matching rings that last saw each other almost 70 years ago. I have been lucky to find some beautiful finds from Roman, to Saxon, to Bronze Age and Celtic over my few years of detecting, although this has to be right up there as my most cherished find to date! Fun Fact: Many years ago, myself and my wife would watch The Lord of The Rings movies. This was pre-children, now we never have enough time to watch a 3hr plus movie nor can we stay awake. The day I found the ring, my wife was listening to the theme music from the Lord of the Rings movies. I insist she listens to that CD every time I go out detecting from now on!
