When Glenda O'Brien lost the friendship ring given to her by her teenage sweetheart in 1974, she never expected to see it again.

But thanks to a man and his metal detector, Ms O'Brien has been reunited with her precious gift, lost for almost half a century.

"Because it meant so much back then and time makes you forget things, when I put it back on it brings memories of when he gave it to me," she said.

"We knew that we would end up together for the rest of our lives, and here we are — the ring has come back to us.

"It's where it belongs."

Jason Kemp, who found the ring, has only just started using his metal detector recently. ( ABC Gold Coast: Solua Middleton )

A golden find

Jason Kemp from Nerang had only been seriously metal detecting as a hobby for three months when his machine signalled something.

He dug down about 20 centimetres and discovered a gold ring with an inscription in it.

"I was pretty excited. It was the first gold ring I found, so I was pretty stoked with that," he said.

"It was a good, solid, chunky ring, and then I saw the engraving on the inside dated 1971.

"I thought 'Wow, this is pretty old,' and it had the couple's names in there: 'To Glenda love Phillip.'"

Mr Kemp was going to put the ring in a cabinet with his other finds but decided to turn to social media first to see if its original owner was out there.

Within two days of his post on the Gold Coast Community Facebook Page, Ms O'Brien contacted Mr Kemp with details of where and how she had lost the ring.

The lost gold ring was posted to the Gold Coast Community Facebook page. ( Supplied: Jason Kemp )

"I didn't tell anyone where I exactly found it," Mr Kemp said.

"I just said 'on the the Gold Coast,' and she came to me with her story of where she lost it, and 'I was like yep, it was 100 per cent yours.'"

Ms O'Brien said she was emotional when she learned her ring had been found.

"I just saw the ring and started crying because I knew it was my ring," she said.

Childhood sweethearts

The friendship ring was given to her by her partner Phillip.

"Back then it was like 'will you go with me' and that was when a friendship ring was given, so we went and picked out this friendship ring and Phil had it engraved for me," she said.

"The meaning to that ring was the commitment to each other.

"It meant a lot to me because I was so young back then, we fell in love at first sight — I was 14 and he was 16.

"That ring was like our unity, more so than our wedding and engagement ring."

Glenda lost her gold friendship ring given to her by her husband Phillip. This is them pictured in the early 70s and in 2016. ( Supplied: Glenda )

In 1972 they moved from Geelong in Victoria and then had a couple of kids and the ring was lost in 1974.

"We were living in a flat on the corner of Hilda Street and the Gold Coast Highway and I was washing our first car — a 1966 HD Holden, and it must have slipped off my finger with the suds," she said.

"I must have stood on it because it was a dirt driveway, and when I realised the ring was gone I tried to look for it, but of course it was probably sunk into the ground and I never found it.

"We lived on the Gold Coast for 34 years, so every time we drove past those flats, which are now a vacant block of land, I would say to Phil, 'I wonder if my ring is still there?'"

It still fits. Glenda O'Brien is reunited with her ring almost 47 years after she lost it in the ground at Mermaid Beach. ( ABC Gold Coast: Solua Middleton )

She would ask herself this question almost every time they drove past.

Back then the ring cost about $38 and it took Mr O'Brien about two weeks to pay it off.

Now that it is back in the family, Mrs O'Brien intends to pass the ring on to her granddaughter along with the incredible story of a ring lost and then found.