A few days after receiving the 6" sniper coil I ventured out into the Adelaide Hills with my Minelab Equinox 800 to detect in an area that I have detected many times before. Soon I had a sharp and solid signal with a TID of 14. Normally I might have moved on, but the tone had an urgency to it, and the depth indicator showed 5 shovels, deep enough to make it unlikely to be modern trash. I dug a plug and was absolutely amazed to find, around 8" down in packed ground, a beautiful golden ring! We become so used to digging up ring pulls and bottle caps that finding something like this is quite shocking.
This ring is a harvest ring, decorated with floral designs, and might have been purchased by a farmer or a mill-owner as a gift after a particularly good harvest.
The hallmarks show that the ring was by August Ludwig Brunkhorst of Adelaide, circa 1895. Brunkhorst was one of the first silversmiths in South Australia, arriving in Adelaide from Germany in 1875 and taking over Steiner's premises at 110 Rundle Street (now Rundle Mall) before 1884. Brunkhorst died in 1919. For historical context, I am including a photograph of Brunkhorst's shop that was taken on 16 July 1915.
The ring will go on display at the South Australian Migration Museum, which exhibits pieces from South Australia's early history, so that others can also enjoy this important part of Adelaide's past.
