I am only 4 hours new to metal detecting, and had not used one before in my life. The first thing I found was a wheat penny from 1958 that was buried 7 inches at a park near my home back in Riverside, California. I purchased a Minelab Excalibur II that was gently used with the intention to start searching for lost treasures at the beach. I had no idea that I would be using it to find treasures that had been lost within my family nearly forty years before. You see my mom passed away a little over a year ago and my dad just passed away as a result of cancer at the beginning of February 2012. When preparing my things to fly back to Oklahoma I thought about my mom telling me about how she had lost her wedding ring on the property across from where my dad lived. So, I decided to take my metal detector with me and see if I might be lucky enough to find her lost wedding ring. I kind of thought to myself that there is no way I would be able to find it, because I was not experienced like all the others that I had watched on Youtube or read about on here. I contacted the family that now lives on the property and explained my story and they were more than gracious to allow me to dig. I began searching in an area that was at the front corner of the 5 acres and found all sorts of things like shreds of aluminum cans and old pull-tabs. I thought to myself that this would be hopeless. Then I started to remember the layout of the property when we had a garden and thought about my mom always spending her free time there. So, I made my way to that area and started finding similar things until I found a few coins. I got excited and kept searching and within thirty minutes of me starting I had found her ring. I just couldn’t imagine it and this was absolutely unbelievable. I have very few things of my moms and I was now holding a ring that she had been given by my dad that was lost nearly forty years ago. I took my treasure back to my brother and showed him and he was shocked. You see when he was younger he had a Whites Eagle metal detector and said all he ever found was nails and within thirty minutes I found coins and a lost ring. I am glad I brought the metal detector; it was also therapeutic for me. It helped me to take my mind off of the sad reason I was there and allowed me to remember the good times we had on the same property that I was searching. I am so thankful to Jack Bean from New Jersey who sold me my metal detector and the wonderful people at Minelab that created the wonderful technology that is in the Excalibur II. They have given to me something more precious than gold and that is the priceless memories. With the warmest thoughts. Mark Kirkland - California, USA