Readers wrote in with their own lore of the rings. Here's one story.

Larry Valdez calls his simple band of gold a "miraculous yo-yo ring." St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things and missing people, was guiding him when he lost it the first time, around the rain-drenched holidays decades ago, in the mud near where he'd washed his hands earlier. It was later found in a tire rut.

A few years later, he was once again washing his hands behind a truck when it slipped off and rolled away. He offered first another prayer, then a reward of a case of beer to whoever in the work crew tracked it down. The ring was found.

Just this year, he was at Kalama Beach, out for a swim, when it went missing again — this time in the water. Although after much searching it seemed a hopeless case, a friend with a metal detector found it in about five feet of water.

Valdez hopes this will be the last time he loses his ring, because he "is wearing out St. Anthony!"