Winslow Frank of Auburn unearths antique 1.1-carat ring buried 6 inches underground

After poking around a local site he’d visited before with his new metal detector, Winslow Frank heard a good, long signal from deep in the ground Thursday and thought, that’s got promise.

He dug 6 inches down. Pay dirt: a European-style platinum ring with a 1.1-carat diamond center that an Auburn jeweler has estimated was probably buried for 50 years.

“I just stood there for a few minutes thinking, ‘This is really exciting, but with my luck, it can’t be a real diamond,'” Frank said.

It was, and exactly where he found it is secret – you don’t know what else might be there.

Frank, from Auburn, bought his new detector back in October and figured, with winter approaching, he’d missed out on most treasure-hunting for the year. It’s been so mild he’s been out a dozen times.

He puts lots of time into researching where to look: Old carnival sites, fair sites, swimming holes, schoolyards, picnic grounds; anywhere people would gather and maybe lose something.

The biggest prize he’d found before this week was an early 1800s coin.

“I was hoping to find something that, at least in my mind, paid me back for my metal detector,” said Frank, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Millett Realty.

As soon as he unearthed the ring he took it to Republic Jewelry & Collectibles on Center Street, where he’d bought detecting supplies. The verdict: It dates back to around 1920 to 1940 and appraised at $4,000.

“It’s held up really well,” said Dan Cunliffe II at Republic. “You never hear of anybody finding something like this this late in the season.”

Frank will keep his new ring for a while, enjoy it, and maybe sell it someday. His girlfriend has “certainly tried it on and admired it,” he said.

In January, he’ll travel with his metal detector to California to visit his son and search for gold. It’ll also go with him next year for parts of a planned hike along the Pacific Crest trail, from Mexico to Canada.

“I’m looking forward to certainly the possibility of finding a gold coin. That would be the ultimate find,” Frank said.

Anything’s possible. Cunliffe said he had a customer two years ago, Harold Gary Sr. of East Poland, find 28 ounces of gold one hour into a treasure hunt in Arizona. Gary had owned his new metal detector for a month.