Put it away for now. Leave it in Illinois. When you return from Hawaii, put an ad (sometimes free) in the found column of a local paper (not a major daily). Many newspapers have their classifieds on-line; when away, check them to see if there is a lost mention of what you found.

Is there a local Facebook group for your neighborhood or do you use the NextDoor app on your smart phone? Those may be other ways to get the word out that you found the earring. I would give minimal details on the description, have the respondents describe it to you.

There are more than a dozen doctors' offices here. The lot serves that building and the hospital.

The setting is trashed -- nearly *flat*.

I don't do Facebook.

There is a local newspaper, but the classifieds barely existent.

I remembered I have a loupe. Now I'm pretty sure this is glass. There are very few facets. I get a red/blue refraction line through the loupe with the stone in the sun -- none from my diamond. (Anyone know what that means?)

It was worth looking; my stone was *filthy*, and there was even a tiny seed wedged under one of the baguettes.

If it were valuable, someone might be checking the lost and found ads (craigslist is a good place) for a while. They likely don't know where they lost it and would probably give up after a week or two. So I wouldn't wait to place the ad because by the time you return home, they would probably have given up by then. You could describe the earring and stone and require they send you a picture of the matching earring in order to claim it. Arrange to get it to them when you return home.

If it's a faux diamond, then I probably wouldn't bother because the setting was destroyed and the stone worth nothing.

Several years ago, my dear friend's schizophrenic brother died in his apt at the end of our street. She found his body - he'd been dead several days in May with no AC going so it was pretty grim. She was so upset by his death and the circumstances finding him, that she could not deal with cleaning out his apt.

I learned a lot about schizophrenia while supervising this! We had to call in a company who does clean-ups after fires/floods etc. It was a hazmat situation as well. It was several week before I could go in the apt without VapoRub and a mask. You may not know but schizophrenics are often "hoarders" and he was definitely one. There was 12 inches of trash on the floors - opening doors was a challenge. I've never seen so much "stuff"!

When it came time to clean out the chest of drawers in his BR, I got a call from the cleaners - they had opened the top drawer and found $5000 in cash and wanted me to do the rest of the clean-out. His sister had given him that for Christmas and he just stuck it in a drawer. The chest was filled with unopened packages of white shirts and unopened packages of underwear. The local homeless shelter was thrilled to get these! And there was a small jewelry tray. I looked at it and it was mostly just junk - single cuff links that were clearly cheap, tie bars from Princeton (where he did his undergraduate studies) - again, costume jewelry. But there was a ring - in fact TWO rings which had been attached together - an engagement ring and a wedding ring. They had so much corrosion on them (yes, corrosion, not dirt), that I could not tell what the heck they were.

I took the ring home and soaked it over night in Dawn and water, and then took a toothbrush to it in the morning. I still didn't know what I had but thought it worth taking to a jeweler - one would not spend money have the rings attached if they were fake, was my thinking. And they were NOT fake! There was a 1.5 ct diamond, not a great stone but pretty nice, and then multiple smaller stones on each side and across the top of the wedding ring. They were set in 14kt white gold. I called my friend and told her what I'd found - she did not want the ring - had far better (she did!), and it would bring back unhappy memories for her, so she gave it to me.

I had the diamond re-set in platinum with two nice sized sapphires on either side. The small diamonds were fully faceted and a decent size and they went into a brooch I had that needed a few more diamonds. They are both gorgeous and I'm very grateful for my friend's generosity. She herself died a few months later.

We have no idea where this ring came from. It was not her mother's as my friend had that. The jeweler said the corrosion would be indicative of it being exposed to the elements for many years. He used to take the bus downtown and walk and walk and walk. We had no way of knowing where he found it, and there was no engraving inside or jeweler's mark to help identify it.

I think of poor Gordie when I wear it - a brilliant man (PhD from Harvard at age 21) who is still one of the recognized scholars on Sanskrit. Truly a "beautiful mind"...

About 10 years ago my SIL found a necklace with a quarter carat diamond pendant in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen. She contacted the local police department and gave a description and her contact information. I think they told her that they allow 30 days for the owner to contact them and if they don't hear anything she was free to keep it. She was thrilled when the month was up and she was able to keep the pendant - and she felt she had done the right thing by contacting the police when she found it.

You could take it with you and ask a jeweler when you arrive in Hawaii - and then contact the police.

I would probably ask that clients be notified but would be a VAGUE as possible on description. NO mention of jewelry and NO mention that it was an ear-ring.

Not as dramatic, but I made a jewelry find at a yard sale. If you're familiar with Tupperware, you know they made these MINI versions for give aways at demos. There was one at a yard sale for a quarter and I knew someone who collected them. I could hear something rattling around inside. It looked like costume, silver-tone, and "amber" bracelet. Seller said keep it. I gave it a closer look when I got home and it was STERLING/ From what I could find out online, it was real amber, too... acetone on q-tip on an inconspicuous spot.

A little OT, but found a wallet on a PATCO train when I was working in Philly several years ago. It had probably $3-400 in CASH, NO ID (like license) only a medical insurance card. I called the doctor's office on the card and knew they weren't gonna give me the address or phone number of "Mary Smith" just on my story. I asked that somebody call her and tell her I have her wallet and give her my number. She called me back within about half an hour and was totally unaware she had even dropped it. She had gotten off the train before I did that morning so we arranged to meet on the way home. Wasn't expecting any kind of a "reward" but she gave me several weeks worth of train rides.

Felt like I had done a really great thing but would be lying if I didn't say all that cash was a temptation?!?

This kind of happened to me too, many years ago. My husband and I went on a wintertime trip and traveled through several states and many large airports. All while wearing my heavy lug sole boots. When we returned home, I was brushing the snow off of them and saw a chuck of ice in the tread. Yes. It was a real diamond. I had no idea when or where my boot picked it up. I looked though lost and founds for weeks in different cities and saw nothing. I still have that stone somewhere in the house. I never did anything with it.

Its a small stone for a pierced ear ring. The setting is crushed. The only thing that might have value is the stone. You say it doesn't have many facets; This not unusual for small stones. In sunlight (has broad spectrum of color), you get red/blue flashes. It could be a diamond or a good simulant such as cubic-zirconia or YAG. Two other stones with high dispersion (fire) are strontium-titanate and synthetic-rutile.

At a quarter caret, the fee for a professional gemologist with proper equipment to identify this stone may be as much as the stone is worth, therefore, I wouldn't have high concern about it.

ElizabethR... similar story about ski areas. When I USED to ski, often wondered HOW people got stuff back that they dropped while riding a chair-lift. Sometime you're relatively close to the ground and other times your WAY up in the air... dizzying to look down. You'd often see poles, gloves,a dn other stuff laying on the snow below. And chair lfts aren't someplace you can just walk to many times. Had an employee talk about how they would want to be one of the first out on the mountains soon as the last of the snow was gone. Told they found a necklace (or bracelet) that ended up being woth BIG bucks... like $10-15 THOUSAND! Someone apparently didn't notice it was even gone cuz wasn't reported.