A great find and another first - still can't believe it

Over the past several days, I have been taking my little guy with me when I metal detect out at one of the oldest park in town that quite the history. Each time I went, I ventured over to the far end of the park away from all the hustle and bustle to an area I thought would have ground that has been relatively untouched since its inception in the 1890s. The spots where I swung my detector had no rhyme or reason to it because I was at the will of wandering toddler who likes to watch people, geese, planes flying in the air, and every single squirrel within his curious gaze.

With this challenging variable, I decided to be really particular about the signals I chose to retrieve - no iffy ones, just ones that were solid and could easily be some form of coinage. One signal I got was about 2 inches outside the ring you see of a recently planted tree in the park, so it was ground that was undisturbed for quite some time. The target ID I got made me think older penny but it would jump down to pulltab range as well. I took my screwdriver out and took a chance at it. As I pulled up some dirt, waved it over my detector and confirmed it was in my hand. As the dirt fell away, I could see the beginning of a circular pattern and I first thought "pull-tab again" - but then I got a sparkle! My was floored and completely dumbfounded - I had found my first gold ring! I quickly checked the inside of the band to verify and I saw the "10K" marking on it. It was a larger men's ring.

What makes this ring stand out though is not the size of the gold ring, but the size of the stone that it holds, it was huge! I was secretly hoping in the back of my mind that this was a diamond but I did not want to get my hopes up. I got it tested over at a local jeweler (thermal test) and it was negative. Still, the 10K band came in at a decent 5.25 pennyweights. Finds like these definitely get you deeper into the hobby!