When I first started working for Kellyco, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. As somebody who loves to detect, I couldn't have asked for a better job.Anytime I wanted to take a detector from the showroom and use it I could do so, again, a dream job for somebody like me. Even being the new guy, I figured I had a pretty good understanding of most of the machines but there were a few that I had not been able to get my hands on; one being the Minelab Excalibur II.I had never used a knob and dial machine before and had always relied on a VDI to guide me in the right direction as to what the target was and felt a little fear in not having that available with this unit but I knew it was a capable machine and that I needed to master it. [split] So, I brought it home on a Friday night and figured I would bring it to the beach to get a good feel for it. I read through the manual, watched some online videos about the Excalibur II and that's when intimidation turned into excitement. This is the detector that just about every serious beach comber uses and for good reason, it works and it works well. I was hoping that I too would be able to benefit from the technology in this detector. I set my alarm for 6:30 and figured with an hour and a half drive I would get to the beach ready to go by 8:00 or so. I was so excited I was having a hard time sleeping and when I realized it was about 4:00 in the morning, I decided to just get an early start... a quite early one at that. By the time I got to the beach it was still pitch black out. I had my headlamp on, beach scoop in hand, empty finds pouch, a fully charged Excalibur II ready to go and the lovely after taste of Red Bull still lingering in my mouth. I was ready, it was time to conquer the beach! I started out and tuned the machine, adjusted the threshold accordingly and worked my way up the beach learning the machine and digging every target so I could begin to relate which sounds went along with which target. I had already spoken in passing to some locals who detect regularly at the beach and a few of them had already found some very nice jewelry. Jealousy can be a great motivator, I wasn't about to quit. I kept going and all of a sudden, a nice clean signal rang in my ears. Time to dig. I scooped through the sand a few times and then saw a ring, gold in color with a diamond sticking out of a clump of wet sand. My eyes must've looked as large as silver dollars and I quickly scooped the ring up. I saw no maker marks, no karat marks, no initials, no inscriptions...not good I thought. More costume jewelry. With a heavy sigh I decided to head home and add it to the collection of finds that had no real value. It was a neat looking ring though so I decided I would add it to my "desk collection," at work. Odds and ends that I have found over the years, both of value and some that had no worth at all minus the fact that I had taken them out of the ground. Let's fast forward about half a year. I decided I was going to propose to my girlfriend and instead of looking for rings with a detector, it was time to start hunting for rings in stores. I told one of the sales reps at a local jewelry store that I worked for Kellyco Metal Detectors just down the street and that I did a lot of metal detecting. Of course, telling them of my triumphs and also failures while detecting and they were surprised to hear that I had not found any gold yet. I jokingly told them that's why it's called treasure hunting and not treasure finding and also that I was more of a relic and coin guy. (I had to spare my ego somehow! How could I not have found any gold rings yet??) They still recommended I bring all of my costume jewelry in to get them checked out. I was going back the next day to pick up my future fiancés ring anyways (She said yes by the way) and figured why not. I brought in a few and the response was what I expected, fake, fake, fake...until we got to that last one with no markings. Turns out, that "fake" one is a half carat trillion cut diamond on a 14k gold band. The appraiser started laughing when I told her the story and she laughed even harder after seeing the look on my face when she told me it was worth over 2600.00. Lesson learned, always check your finds!! Unfortunately, there were no marks on the ring or etched on the diamond that would help me get the ring back to its rightful owner and the appraiser felt that it most likely originated in another country. In all, when going to the beach, I know what machine I will be using and why. I'll also be investing in a gold test kit!

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