NY State Seal Staff Officer Breast Button

[relichound]

My two metal detecting buddies Dave, Mark & I have been detecting a Union encampment site in Virginia since April. To date we have propbably dug close to 200 drops, mostly .54, and .44, but also .58 round shot, .69 and the usual: square nails, rusted iron, and other junk metal odds and ends.
We've been using rakes now in the site because the targets have been becoming few and far between.

On Saturday, October 28, 2006 I detected the site all day, and raked for the first hour-removing 1-3 ichnes of leaves and dirt to further expose potential. I was sore as heck from the raking, but was pleasnlty rewarded for my efforts. I dug 2 more drop .44, 2 drop .54 another general service eagle breast button and my first: a New York Sate Seal Officer Staff breast button. The NY button is probably in the best condition of all the buttons I have dug from this site (11). It retains at least 50% of it's original gilt, has 13 stars around the button with the word EXCELSIOR at the bottom. The backmark reads: "EXTRA QUALITY" with 2 opossing stars on either side with eye shank completely intact. The button is not cracked or dented at all, and I almost passed over the target with my Fisher ID Edge because I had just earlier dug 4-5 bottle caps in a row and when I got the lock on target beep-pinpointing at only 1 inch down-I was suspecting another bottle cap. Rule number ONE: Dig all signals period. All the other buttons except for this button and the eagle I dug the same day are in the best condition that I have seen being dug from these very heavily mineralized Virginia soil. I have attched the wesbsite link below where you can view my pics. Now if I can only recover ALL remaining federal and confederate state seal buttons! Thanks for looking and HH!

Wayne

[tnfishdaddy]

Nice finds. I wish I could find a place like this. Keep posting your finds.

[Mainedigger]

Nice finds....Congrats!! I'd love to be able to hit an old civil war site...

[civilman1]

I know how you feel about gettin' through the leave's and crap,just picked up another farm at Antietam....Dig every signal.....never know what's there!!!.....Excellent find's!!

[relichound]

Thanks,

Yes we were about to give up on this site because the signals have been becoming few and far between lately and we've only searched about 1/3 of the site; we keep moving leaves, logs and junk away and piling into other areas that we now need to search. So now we are expanding the area and in doing so-we're raking everything away in an area to hunt. This has obviously made the difference for us. I strongly recommend to all diggers to bring in a rake-just by removing 1-3 inches of soil once the leaves and sticks are removed is like hitting a virgin site all over again. This gives us the edge and most diggers probably don't do this added work-yes it's work-but it's well worth the effort in our added recoveries. I would have past over the beautiful NY State Seal Staff officer's breast button had I not raked the area first-because the button was only 1 inch down in the ground and I had dug 4-5 bottle caps in a row prior to digging the button-so DIG everything-every signal you must dig-that has been the secret to our success my fellow diggers.

Another oddity, is that on my Fisher ID Edge, not all the bullets that I have dug from this area register as a "high discernible tone"; half of the signals that I have dug would be just a one-way non-repeatable signal-so I'd pinpoint and dig and up would come a bullet sometimes. The larger caliber bullet drops .54 and .58 round shot would usually register 34-36 range on the ID, whereas the smaller caliber .44 drops would register in the teens on the Edge's display as do the two IH cents that I have dug in here (1861, & 1862). Regardless though-I dig every signal-you have to in a site like this. Old timers tell us this area was pounded in the 80s, but hasn't been touched since-enter into the scenario modern detectors and up to date technology and no site is ever completely hunted out! Good luck all and happy HH.

Wayne

[trk5capt]

Wayne, Very Nice Finds, Congrats. Looks Like You Have A Great Site To Hunt There. My Hunting Buddy Art Just Dug One On The Morris Island End Of Folly Beach, NY State Seal... trk5capt...

[Digginman]

Great finds. I thought I was doing well with relics of the Civil War, now this.

DM

[Nana40]

Awesome finds, Wayne!

I dug a bullet yesterday that registered as iron that normally registers in the teens. Don't know what was up with that, but glad I dug it!

Nana

[mobrigade]

Never give up on a site, if you are sure its dead, give me a call, I will glady come out with you and dig. My father and I found a virgin US cav and infantry camp here in Missouri, we've token over 1500 Rounds, 1 Breastplate, several spurs and spur pieces, buttons, etc....its been over two years since we found it, signals are further and further between, but we still pop stuff out. We've hammered that thing, and I dug a baby multi-ring sharps there a couple weekends ago.