Rare 'medieval' artifacts found in Chilliwack thrift store

Well, it is every thrifters dream coming across some hidden treasure in the aisles of donated goods in a thrift shop. And that's what happened to Sandy Parker who manages thrifty boutique in Chilliwack. Now in the spring of last year, she was sorting through and pricing some donations and came across a series of rings and medallions. They were originally priced at just $30 each. Well, those items have now been identified as possible rare artifacts and they might date back thousands of years to medieval or Roman times. Well, Sandy Parker has been good enough to join us this morning. Good morning to you, Sandy. Good morning. Thanks for being with us. Just first of all, describe the items, what they look like and how many of them you had on hand. We had 11 rings and two medallions. They were kind of a bronze color and they looked really old. Our system manager Stephanie was tasked with figuring out where what they were and maybe what would they were worth but there was little to no information online that she could find and after, you know, quite some time she finally gave up and we just thought we'll sell them as is. Okay, and so you put a $30 price tag on each one. Yeah. Yeah, and we got very fortunate when a person walked into the store and thought they might be something special and pushed us to contact SFU. Now tell me about that encounter. How did that go down? It was one of our volunteers, Lois, that talked to the fellow and he just happened to come in and was browsing and saw them and told her the story and she immediately took them off the floor to see what we could do with them. And what did he have to say? He was an archaeologist, I understand. Yes, he had a background in archaeology and he figured they were just something special and needed further looking into. All right, and so did he reach out to SFU or he told you guys to reach out to SFU? He told us to, yes. And what happened then? One of our volunteer, Lois, took it upon herself to take the time and drive out there and meet with Barbara and they talked about them for a bit and we went back and forth for quite some time because who actually owned them was one of the questions and essentially we do because they were donated to us, but we had no info on them. So they weren't sure quite what to do with them. Right, and how did they come to you? They came to you as a collection, all of them at once? Yeah, just in a regular donation. We get hundreds of them every day and it just wound up here. We have no idea who or actually the exact date when they arrived here. Wow, and so no idea who the donor may have been or I guess did the donor have any idea what they had? I have no idea, absolutely no idea. Now, so the process of identifying the artifacts then, they went to Simon Fraser University and then have you been told anything about them? Not much, just what we know. They figure they could be from medieval times, but further studies required. We just know they're in the right hands now that they don't belong with us or, you know, being sold. Well, I understand that they're now in the care of SFU's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and are actually going to be a part of a new course. Is that right? Yeah, and that's even exciting on its own. I think that these rings, if, you know, they turn out not to be old, that they've started a whole new course at SFU. So it's kind of exciting. Well, here's hoping they're authentic then. I mean, if you're starting a new course about them. Is this a peak moment for stuff you found in the thrift store? Absolutely, 100%. I mean, we see interesting things all the time. We actually have an urn with mom's ashes in it waiting, hoping that somebody from mom's family will show up. We don't have any names, but we have put it out to the media. Holy gosh. Yeah, so she's sitting comfortably in one of the offices here waiting. We found, you know, $200 in a box of underwear. It's just amazing the things we find. I can imagine. People might want to check, you know, what they're handing over before they decide to hand it over. Maybe open up the box and have a look. Absolutely. Yeah, there's often money in books, too. We find it's just crazy. Did SFU pay you the asking price for each of those pieces? Did you make a few bucks out of them? Absolutely not. They're where they belong. Okay, sounds like you could have got a couple hundred bucks out of them anyway. Maybe, yeah. We're just super excited to hear the story and find out if there is a story behind them. Sandy, Sandy, thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you for taking the time with us this morning. It's a, it's a heck of a story and we appreciate your time. Thank you. All right, take care. We're pretty excited around here. It's definitely changed the course of the week for sure. It's very cool. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-bye. That's Sandy Parker, manager of Thrifty Boutique in Chilliwack.