Do you want to go to prison?? Then hand over your gold. Part 1

This is a true story and I know this, because it happened to me.

Well a few years ago I was incredibly lucky to find a 17 century, gold, posy ring, whilst out metal detecting. Now you never believe that you can be this lucky and if I'm honest, when I first dug it up I assumed it was a brass ring and put it in my junk bag, with out giving it a second thought. I was a novice with the metal detector at the time and the depth of the ring gave a poor signal and I dismissed it as junk.

OK, so first up. What's a posy ring?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posie_ring

Let's go back to before I found out it was a posy ring and how I nearly ended up in prison.

So the ring was in my junk pocket, and by junk pocket I should clear up what I mean, it's not my ring-pull/tin foil discard pile, but items I think are worth keeping but of no value... "junk pocket"!!

I put the ring with other bits and bobs in a small box and put it at the back of a cupboard to do some research on at a later date, when I have some spare time. We'll a day turned into a week, a week into a month, a month in to two..... Can you see where I'm going with this??

So this pile of "junk" is just sat in the cupboard and eventually Mrs welshstacker decides enough is enough and that I should start chucking out some of the crap I've accumulated. Now at this point I had forgotten all about the ring I had found, so when it pops back out I get that gut feeling that I really should get this checked out.

In my infinite wisdom I decide the best place to get this ring checked out is my local jewellery shop. If anyone will know what it is, if its made of gold, they should!!??!!

I turn up to the jewellery shop and ask if they buy gold jewellery. He takes a good look at the ring and gives it a good going over before handing it back to me and saying "can't find a hallmark, I don't think it's gold". My heart sinks a little bit, I thought I was having an early payday.

So this is when I decide to sell it as part of a job lot of detector find on ebay. I'm honest with my listing and give as much detail as I can and say these are all unresearched metal detector finds. £0.99, with no reserve, what could go wrong? This is where the fun really starts.....

It doesn't take long before the bids start flying in. £100, £200, £250, £400, £500, £800, £1000 and its only been up for a day! What the hell have I got and what the hell have I done?

The next day the messages started to arrive. You know the usual, "how much to end early?" "if I offer you £30 will you end it now".... Then a few that caught my eye

"have you declared this to the police and museum?"

"have you informed the police and coroner? Don't worry I've reported you anyway!"

"I've informed the police you are selling this illegally, you need to call the museum"

OK now I'm shitting myself. Better call the museum in Cardiff and see whats up. I call the switchboard and explain what I've got and they put me through to the correct department.

A fantastic guy called Mark Lodwick answers the phone and I start explaining whats gone on. He says he has heard about my ring already and was expecting my phone call. He informs me that the police have been contacted and I may have a visit. We arrange for me to go to the museum the next day with the ring so he can take a look at it.

He takes one look at it, takes it in his hand and says to me, "take one last look at the ring, I don't think you'll be seeing it again". If I hadn't of turned up when I said I was going to the police would have definitely come knocking. I explain that it had been mistaken for junk and that I had even taken it to a jeweler to identify it. He can see this was a genuine mistake and that he would inform the coroner and police that this was an error and that no further action should be taken.

So if you're wondering why all the fuss, we have a little thing in this country called the 1996 treasure act

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Act_1996

The ring is taken to the museum safe for safe keeping and the process of having it declared as treasure trove has begun....

To be continued.