Found a ring

Offset

We dug up a ring containing three gemstones (two small diamonds and what appears to be a sapphire) whilst tidying up the garden a couple of years back.  I should really have it valued - our house is very old so feck knows how long it had been there.  I worked part-time in an antique jewellers when I was a student so I'm guessing (based on 40 year-old knowledge) this is a Victorian piece.  The band itself is tiny so I can't read the hallmarks with my crap eyesight but I'm pretty certain it's 9ct gold.

I won't be taking it to my local plod to see if anyone claims it :-)

Jono111

CavemanGrogg said:

Snags said:

I think you're north of the border, but it might not be worth taking it to the police. A little while back they changed the lost property stuff, and will now only take in a limited range of things, not sure that 'general' jewellery is on that list.

So yes, you're probably best putting up a brief description in a local Facebook group or similar and see if anyone can convince you it's theirs.

Edit: north of the border comment because the situation may be different, and I'm only aware of the English plod side of things.

Not true, I've handed in jewellery many times to the police.

I think it works differently if they catch you with it after a break in at the local jewellers 

Kittyfrisk

Offset said:

We dug up a ring containing three gemstones (two small diamonds and what appears to be a sapphire) whilst tidying up the garden a couple of years back.  I should really have it valued - our house is very old so feck knows how long it had been there.  I worked part-time in an antique jewellers when I was a student so I'm guessing (based on 40 year-old knowledge) this is a Victorian piece.  The band itself is tiny so I can't read the hallmarks with my crap eyesight but I'm pretty certain it's 9ct gold.

I won't be taking it to my local plod to see if anyone claims it :-)

Old loss & on your property, no need to do anything other than get it valued & decide to sell or not.
Small Victorian ring in a drawer or a contribution to new guitar 

Hootsmon

Sell it on

Offset

Kittyfrisk said:

Old loss & on your property, no need to do anything other than get it valued & decide to sell or not.
Small Victorian ring in a drawer or a contribution to new guitar 

Good shout.  It's not doing anything sitting around here - apart from waiting to be lost again :-)

Kurtis

RaymondLin said:

You could always give it to the police, then put it on Facebook asking who has lost it, rough area it's lost...then tag the local constabulary in the post so it's public knowledge that the police now have possession of it.

This is basically what I've done. Handed it in, they took my details, and I've asked my dad to see about putting something up on facecake.
I also took a few pics of it first in case the police claim ignorance. 

Just waiting for my reward now! 

dazzajl

Kurtis said:

Just waiting for my reward now! 

Tut tut.  You should know that no good deed goes unpunished

BillDL

[EDIT]  I see you did the decent thing and that the police did also.  Good.  Hope you looked at the hallmarks first 

There was a time not so long ago (I'm talking late 80s here) that some people would come into the police office to hand in a tenner (worth a lot more back then) or a dropped monthly bus ticket as found property.  The items had to be properly logged in an A5 duplicate book, sealed in a bag with a description and the index number from the found property book, and locked in the safe and then transferred to a found property and evidence room.  The finder was thanked for their honesty and good-citizenship, given a copy of the page from the found property book, and the item could then be claimed by them in 6 months if nobody came in to report that they had lost the item.

If somebody did come in to claim an item they lost they could optionally leave a reward for the finder and the police would phone the finder to tell them a reward had been left.  If the finder failed to claim it, the item was added to a job lot of other found property and auctioned.  The police were not proactive in attempting to find the loser unless, for example, there was something on or found along with the item that may help to trace the owner, or if it was apparently high value, or was most probably from theft like a burglary.  If something of apparently high value was handed in and appeared to have been lost rather than dropped by a fleeing burgler, the police would put a small notification and a very general description in the next printed local newspaper.

Some larger institutions like airports, railways, bus stations, hospitals, etc. were permitted to handle their own found property processes as long as they complied with the prevailing law.

The majority of people are honest and imagine how they would feel having lost something sentimental or of value, and in the cases of the found tenner there were two reasons: (a) perhaps a poor pensioner dropped their last tenner and wouldn't be able to buy food, or (b) the stigma of being seen picking up and pocketing the tenner while saying "finders keepers" when perhaps that tenner was an old person's last tenner.  I don't think we are all inherently honest and I think the fear of being seen and judged as a thief used to be more of an incentive to act honestly.

Despite changes in the police found property procedures, i.e. charging the loser a percentage of the perceived value as a "handling fee" when having lost property returned, and more recently taking very little to do with found property at all, Scottish law still makes "theft by finding" a crime.  We don't have The Theft Act 1953 or any other statutory legislation in Scotland that covers theft, apart from "taking and driving away a car without consent" which was made into a statute for various reasons including the pockling of crime figures to suit.  Theft is common law Theft, and is committed when a person (off the top of my head from memory here) "Takes and appropriates the property of another person without that person's consent or without other lawful authority".  The "appropriation" part is crucial because it establishes that the act is felonious and has been done with intent to deprive the owner.  It is not necessary to establish who the owner of the property is, and that's where the "theft by finding" aspect comes into play with the tenner fluttering around the ATM or at the entrance to a shop.

If you find anything, pick it up, pocket it, and decide to keep it, that still constitutes theft in Scotland despite the police now taking fuck all to do with what they still should be doing.  All the police have done by gradually withdrawing from one of their primary functions, i.e. "protect life and property", is to place the onus on the finder to ensure that they made some attempt to trace an owner to hand an item back to rather than just "appropriating" it to their own use.  It has created a huge grey area and has undermined the notion of honesty.

These days I have very little trust in the police and what the police actually think they should be doing as a public service, and I would not trust that the ring would even be properly looked after and stored by them if they took it as found property.  I also despise the idea that they charge the loser a percentage of some arbitrary value in order to get the item back.  It's a dilemma though, because how would you feel if you had lost a sentimental or valuable ring?

Personally I would phone 101 (non-urgent police matters) and ask what to do with the ring while recording the conversation.  If they tell you that the police will not take it as found property that's fine.  It's up to you whether you decide to use social media to try and track the owner, and there is no come-back later if you sell it and it turns out to be of high value or stolen.  If they tell you to take it to a police office, find one near somewhere that would give you a quick valuation before taking it to the police station so you know what you are handing them, and make damned sure you keep the receipt and go back to retrieve it within the specified time before it goes to auction if it is going to be worth paying a handling fee.

Do you know how to read the inscriptions on precious metal jewellery, eg. the gold or silver grade (9ct, 18ct) and hallmarks?

My notes will be so far out of date now that they would only cover quite old gold and silver rings, but the info will be freely available online.

375 = 9ct

750 - 18ct.
American gold will be 583 = 14ct, 916 = 22ct.

925 = Sterling Silver (92.5% pure)

Kurtis

BillDL said:

[EDIT]  I see you did the decent thing and that the police did also.  Good.  Hope you looked at the hallmarks first 

There was a time not so long ago (I'm talking late 80s here) that some people would come into the police office to hand in a tenner (worth a lot more back then) or a dropped monthly bus ticket as found property.  The items had to be properly logged in an A5 duplicate book, sealed in a bag with a description and the index number from the found property book, and locked in the safe and then transferred to a found property and evidence room.  The finder was thanked for their honesty and good-citizenship, given a copy of the page from the found property book, and the item could then be claimed by them in 6 months if nobody came in to report that they had lost the item.

If somebody did come in to claim an item they lost they could optionally leave a reward for the finder and the police would phone the finder to tell them a reward had been left.  If the finder failed to claim it, the item was added to a job lot of other found property and auctioned.  The police were not proactive in attempting to find the loser unless, for example, there was something on or found along with the item that may help to trace the owner, or if it was apparently high value, or was most probably from theft like a burglary.  If something of apparently high value was handed in and appeared to have been lost rather than dropped by a fleeing burgler, the police would put a small notification and a very general description in the next printed local newspaper.

Some larger institutions like airports, railways, bus stations, hospitals, etc. were permitted to handle their own found property processes as long as they complied with the prevailing law.

The majority of people are honest and imagine how they would feel having lost something sentimental or of value, and in the cases of the found tenner there were two reasons: (a) perhaps a poor pensioner dropped their last tenner and wouldn't be able to buy food, or (b) the stigma of being seen picking up and pocketing the tenner while saying "finders keepers" when perhaps that tenner was an old person's last tenner.  I don't think we are all inherently honest and I think the fear of being seen and judged as a thief used to be more of an incentive to act honestly.

Despite changes in the police found property procedures, i.e. charging the loser a percentage of the perceived value as a "handling fee" when having lost property returned, and more recently taking very little to do with found property at all, Scottish law still makes "theft by finding" a crime.  We don't have The Theft Act 1953 or any other statutory legislation in Scotland that covers theft, apart from "taking and driving away a car without consent" which was made into a statute for various reasons including the pockling of crime figures to suit.  Theft is common law Theft, and is committed when a person (off the top of my head from memory here) "Takes and appropriates the property of another person without that person's consent or without other lawful authority".  The "appropriation" part is crucial because it establishes that the act is felonious and has been done with intent to deprive the owner.  It is not necessary to establish who the owner of the property is, and that's where the "theft by finding" aspect comes into play with the tenner fluttering around the ATM or at the entrance to a shop.

If you find anything, pick it up, pocket it, and decide to keep it, that still constitutes theft in Scotland despite the police now taking fuck all to do with what they still should be doing.  All the police have done by gradually withdrawing from one of their primary functions, i.e. "protect life and property", is to place the onus on the finder to ensure that they made some attempt to trace an owner to hand an item back to rather than just "appropriating" it to their own use.  It has created a huge grey area and has undermined the notion of honesty.

These days I have very little trust in the police and what the police actually think they should be doing as a public service, and I would not trust that the ring would even be properly looked after and stored by them if they took it as found property.  I also despise the idea that they charge the loser a percentage of some arbitrary value in order to get the item back.  It's a dilemma though, because how would you feel if you had lost a sentimental or valuable ring?

Personally I would phone 101 (non-urgent police matters) and ask what to do with the ring while recording the conversation.  If they tell you that the police will not take it as found property that's fine.  It's up to you whether you decide to use social media to try and track the owner, and there is no come-back later if you sell it and it turns out to be of high value or stolen.  If they tell you to take it to a police office, find one near somewhere that would give you a quick valuation before taking it to the police station so you know what you are handing them, and make damned sure you keep the receipt and go back to retrieve it within the specified time before it goes to auction if it is going to be worth paying a handling fee.

Do you know how to read the inscriptions on precious metal jewellery, eg. the gold or silver grade (9ct, 18ct) and hallmarks?

My notes will be so far out of date now that they would only cover quite old gold and silver rings, but the info will be freely available online.

375 = 9ct

750 - 18ct.
American gold will be 583 = 14ct, 916 = 22ct.

925 = Sterling Silver (92.5% pure)

Cheers Bill. 

I did try looking and think I found the 925 for silver but the other mark I couldn't quite see. There was also what looked like 09/60 which I thought might be size or something. 

hollywoodrox

Does anyone even go to the police to look for lost property these days? Does anyone trust them with something ?  Social media seems king at returning stuff these days .  Eg anybody lost an item of jewellery on gobbindale road in the last day or two ? Please contact with description to claim 

Fingers657

Kittyfrisk said:

Hope it isn't a vintage Ratners ring...

Worth a Prawn sandwich now then 

Fingers657

Take a load of pictures of it and the markings inside the band and hand it in at your local police station .
If nobody claims it after three months it’s yours.
Dont put it on social media.

Schnozz

I wouldn't post anything on Facebook. Just let them contact the police.

Hootsmon

Wife found £600 in a wallet in home town and handed it in to police

Teh cops asked wifey if she wanted a reward when owner turned up. aye,OK she replied, somewhat perplexed at question

Not only did owner turn up and get his dosh back but no reward was forthcoming...nor, I might add, a simple thank you

Arse hole

sev112

How about report it to police, give them your email address, and ask them to point people in your direction, keeping the ring in your safe possession?

Kurtis

It's all out of my hands now.

Really hope it gets to the owner. I noticed this morning there was a bit of wear on the bottom so it's been on someone's finger for a while by the looks.

Thanks all. 

BillDL

Nothing worse than a worn bottom that's been on somebody's finger 
....... well, unless it was the proctologist's finger I suppose.

GrislyFind

Years ago my Dad found a gold wedding ring and handed it into the police. To his surprise no-one claimed it an he got to keep it. It was in the gutter near a solicitors' office so we thought maybe someone had been sorting out a divorce and had slung it.

Anyway, it became my wedding ring and it has been redeemed -- no jinx!

Had it engraved with a Bible verse.

BillDL

While I was awaiting divorce papers back from the court I sold my wedding ring for scrap gold to one of those old time jewellers for about £30 so I could buy a new car battery for my old banger.  Clearly that was a long time ago given the cost of car batteries these days.

viz

Kurtis said:

It's all out of my hands now.

Really hope it gets to the owner. I noticed this morning there was a bit of wear on the bottom so it's been on someone's finger for a while by the looks.

Thanks all. 

Nice one. Well done for not selling it on - it might have been stolen and you might have been implicated in all sorts of nasty stuff.