Graduating from high school, college and for other graduating life events like military schools, nursing schools and many more most have the option to not only get a piece of paper to commemorate this accomplishment but also order a ring for a lifelong keepsake.
In this country this has been going on over a hundred years, a few companies make these and most were ordered with the precious metal chosen being gold...usually 10k.
There are other options nowadays, silver being one I have seen posts about.
This company has been around a long time, they are usually the company that makes the really expensive championship rings for winning professional sports teams along with more moderate but still very expensive versions for national championship college teams.
http://www.jostens.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=JostensBranded&utm_term=jostens
Here is another old company...
http://www.balfour.com/students/college/rings/
Here is a third that goes back to 1920.
https://www.herffjones.com/products/
These rings are usually cherished, and when most lose one a loss like this is usually felt deeper than other ordinary jewelry items.
For this reason when we find one here it is not just another gold ring but something special for us, also, because they are rare.
When one is returned out of the blue by someone in this hobby it is usually a joyous reunion and makes the hunter feel happy too...usually, but even though most are thankful and show it not all do.
You can feel pretty stupid turning over a piece of gold worth several hundred of dollars to someone that just grabs it out of your hand and slams their door in your face without even a thank you or treats you like an idiot in some other way for even considering doing these things.
That is not a good feeling.
Many choose to return these things whenever they can and tracking down owners of these are one of the easiest types of jewelry to do that with because the school name is part of the design and the owners initials are usually inscribed on the inside of the band.
They have had mostly good experiences and a few have had bad but they still do it.
Others won't do it at all after one bad experience.
As rare as they are they are out there...here are a few I have found all on public areas in the dirt, the largest being over 18 grams of 10k and worth close to $500 melt at the time I gave it back, the oldest one going back to 1969.
