To assume this is my diamond?

[Blueowls]

My engagement ring was a very simple one- a white gold band with a single little diamond. I think it only cost about £150 twenty years ago but that was a lot of money to us back then; I have adored it and would never have wanted to change or upgrade it.

5 years ago I noticed that the little diamond had fallen out somewhere in my bedroom. I had put it back on after a shower and been getting dressed and then saw a very sad looking empty ring. Searched the bedroom with a fine tooth comb at the time and kept a look out for a long time but never found it.

Fast forward to today. We are currently living in a furnished rental house overseas and while sorting through my clothes in my drawers what should I see sitting glinting at the bottom of a drawer- a tiny diamond! The same size as my lost diamond.

Is it my diamond though?! I suppose it's possible that the lost diamond got muddled in clothes or had fallen into the depths of a pocket or something but it also seems a bit unlikely that it's suddenly appeared in a random drawer 5 years later?? I can't be totally sure that it's a real diamond I have found and not a costume jewellery stone but it looks legit and the bottom of it looks as though it has previously been set in a ring.

Should I hand it over to the landlords and ask if previous tenants have lost one, or do I assume it's my lost one and have it placed in my old ring (which is currently in storage back in the UK)?

The stone itself isn't worth more than about £100 (at least that's the quote I got to replace it) but I'm sure it worth far more in sentimental value regardless of who it belonged to.

WWYD?

I have worn all the clothes in the drawer within the last year and they have all been through the wash! I'm not exactly organised about which clothes I put away in which drawers though they get shoved in wherever there's space so if it is my diamond I suppose it could have hitched a ride from any of my clothes and fallen off into the drawer either when we unpacked moving in or at some other point. It's bizarre.

Almost certainly yours. Things have a funny habit of turning up years later

When I was 17 I lost a wallet - I thought it was in my step dads car and search several times but found nothing. Roll on 18 years DD was playing at my mums and a ball rolled into a bush and there underneath ball, covered in mud and grime was my wallet - I'm sure it was mine as it still had a phone number for my by then very ex boyfriend inside - bonus it also had £25 which I had to take to post office as the notes had changed by then

I, on the other hand, can't see how it can't be! Surely it's yours, OP - how many other diamonds of that size and shape are likely to be kicking around without their original settings in random drawers, and what's the likelihood that a completely different one would turn up in the foreign apartment you just happen to be living in?

Do any of your current clothes date back five years? My guess would be that the diamond got caught up in a seam or cuff or something, on an item of clothing you don't wear all that often, and it fell out when you were unpacking it in your new home. It does sound far-fetched in a way, but less so than the idea that somebody else just happened to lose the same sort of diamond in your home!

I'm sure it's not worth much at all @ineedaknittedhat apart from in sentimental value, I'm sure if it's someone else's they would very much like it back too.

I really don't know @MrsEricBana! The last thing I want to do is steal someone else's engagement diamond! It seems hugely unlikely yet hugely coincidental at the same time!

It seems so unlikely that it is yours and equally unlikely that it isn't!

That's true @GraceMarks. Every scenario seems completely against the odds!

I have plenty of clothes over 5 years old here, I can't think of any that won't have been though the wash since I lost the stone though.

Wow, that's great! I definitely wouldn't rush to hand it over to the landlords, if it's from the previous tenants they'll have written it off, so you can at least check it against the band when you get back to the UK.

I lost a bracelet over the summer of which I was really fond, and a few weeks ago I found it literally lying in the middle of the kitchen floor I think it had come off in a box in the cat food cupboard and I'd dislodged it when I was clearing it out. Weird things like that do happen. What an amazing piece of luck if it's been hiding in your clothes and survived several goes through the washing machine! I think it got snagged in something you wouldn't wash that frequently, like a knitted cardigan, and held fast. Reminds me of that woman who lost her engagement ring whilst she was gardening, and then pulled up a carrot years later and the carrot had grown around it and was "wearing" it, it was really cool.

You could take it to a jeweller and they could probably confirm that it is a real diamond, hopefully without charge (check first?). Then when you get back to UK a jeweller could surely confirm that it came from your ring.

I think it is really sweet that you are concerned that somebody else may have lost it and be upset, so you want to ensure it goes to it's rightful owner.

That IS my diamond .... it's hiding place is so crazy

Yes it must be, unless it's a little sequin ?! What's the chances of just locating a diamond

On a similar note I had diamond studs, 40th birthday present that cost over £500 ... one day I was at work and realised one had come out - butterfly in my hair but no stud - my line manager was in the meeting, she could see the panic on my face ... she said 'check your bra ' .... yup! There it was 😉

I'd say these little beasts get themselves wrapped up in clothing and Make their way to the surface somewhere along the line, when they're ready - I mean they're used to being hidden in rocks for thousands of years 🤪 what's a few years in a drawer

How odd! Of course it could be your diamond but what are the chances? Amazing!

Take it to a jeweller and see what they think. They’ll probably tell you for free if you say you’ll bring the ring in for them to reset it when you have it.

Jessie lol no it hadn't but was about to be fed to one. Just dropped out of the bale when being lifted into the wheelbarrow.

Allfednonedead

I think the carrot story is appropriate here...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40956139

lt sounds like it's yours. They're so small they can easily get lost. l once dropped a (very small!) diamond stud earring in my bedroom. Raked through the long-ish pile carpet a dozen times, couldn't find it. l was gutted.
Fast forward a while, we were buying a house, so we took up the carpets to give to my mother in law (we were in a rented housing development) as they were only a couple of years old.
About three months later, my husband came back from his mams with my earring! lt must have risen to the surface with the movement of it being moved and relaid. l still have it, thirty odd years on, and l'm so grateful it didn't vanish up her hoover!

I'm sure it is yours. I once lost an earring for 4 years and it turned up at work! I was wearing all new clothes too. I think what happened is it caught on a scarf or top, fell into one of my drawers when I put the clothing away, lay there in the drawer for years and then caught again on something 4 years later and travelled with me to work and fell out onto my desk!

It' your diamond. Just get it reset. Even if it is not, it is a god send. My brother found a diamond on the ground and my niece found one at the bottom of a swimming pool!

PS.
You should be able to tell if it is yours if you remember the carat size

OMG, the carrot story - i can't believe it happened twice! (Did anyone follow the link to the Swedish one?)

Yeah, OP, it's most likely yours. While it is unlikely to have hung onto stuff and fall out now in another country (one unusual loss and one unusual find), it's even more unlikely that someone else also lost a diamond of the same (approximate) size right before you moved in, in a drawer that would eventually hold your clothes. That requires two unusual losses, an unusual find, and an unusual coincidence. At least that's my maths :)

murmuration I was talking about the Canadian one too but I've just Googled and there was also the same thing in Somerset, and the story is dated one year later almost to the day!

(Amusingly, the woman says it was "a chance in a million disovery" )

And oh my God look, another one from Germany!

I bet it is what are the chances of two people losing a diamond the same size and you being connected to both of them, ?I bet it got caught in the depths of a pocket of something?

Lady I worked with few years back lost a diamond, she didn't know where. Months later she was archiving files and found it in the paperwork of someone she used to be the key worker of.

Qium, wow!

I'm finding it quite amusing that missing diamond rings turn up on carrots.
Diamond : Carats

Yeah it is unusual to find random lost diamonds ( worked in a jewellers for years and I have never found one just hanging about in a drawer! ) it probably got caught on your sleeve ( very common ) check the settings on your ring when you can you will probably find one of the claws is shorn off or damaged.

Get some sellotape and stick the diamond on the tape and then tape it to a dark coloured envelope or card. It will be easy to keep safe then.

Glad you found your missing diamond!

I like your scientific mathematical conclusion @murmuration!

Isn't life funny sometimes. I love the carrot stories!

I actually have another recent lucky ring story- we spent Christmas overseas on our own and on Christmas Day my brother sent me a photo of my wedding ring. It had been a bit loose for ages and when I was wrapping presents it must have fallen into the bottom of the gift bag I used to put his present in- he found it at the bottom! The parcel of presents had been posted back to the UK a fortnight before Christmas and I hadn't even realised it was missing from my hand! Sooo lucky! Lucky it was found and lucky I was spared weeks frantically fruitlessly searching for it!

Jetset jewellery 😆