I received permission to detect at a rural church built around 1890. I went out for a couple of hours this morning and didn't find much of anything except a small silver ring.
When I got home and washed it off I noticed what looked like lettering around the inside rim edges. I showed it to my daughter who said that she thought the ring was made from a silver coin. She was right.
After a bit of investigation we could read FRANCAI on one edge and EGALITE on the other. It turns out the coin was made from a silver French 50 Centimes, a type struck between 1897-1920.
I would love to think that a World War I U.S. Doughboy either bought the ring in France in 1917-1918 and brought it home for a loved one or that a soldier brought home the coin and later had it made into a ring. Of course, I'll never know, but my mind has fancied the image of a young girl in the 1920s, saddened when she lost the ring her father brought home for her from France, while playing outside of her church one day.
Posted 07/25/2020 11:55 am
