Rocketing down the copper trail

[ironhorse]

After three fall hunts this year, momentum is starting to gather and success is coming our way!
Me and IP had to do it up right this day, it was his fifteen year anniversary detecting old finds, so I guess we had to go get them.
Things picked up right where we left it last time out, started hitting buttons and an odd copper, then
when I hit the Rev War officers button, we were diverted off the copper trail to find some early military buttons!
My nicest King's American Regiment coat button to date...nice details but lacking gilt.
Hit a nearby field with very similar results, interesting find here was my Irish button...crowned Irish harp flanked by the English rose and Scottish thistle; very similar to devices used on Hibernia coppers.
We crossed the river to another site that was pure Rev War, I got a pair of Royal Provincials one large and one small, some edge loss, but great for the age! A few more buttons and another copper. Interesting find here was a small lead disc stamped with a GR cipher in a crown ( Georgius Rex?)
Closed out the rest of the afternoon at yet another site which produced more buttons and a copper.

Looking forward again to getting out and hitting the copper trail soon!

 

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[Iron Patch]

It is a button! It never did sit well with me thinking it was a Farthing because the 1806 Farthings are fairly thick. That's 5 quality keepers!

 

[ironhorse]

It is a button! It never did sit well with me thinking it was a Farthing because the 1806 Farthings are fairly thick. That's 5 quality keepers!

Yep pretty happy with the results!
The harp button is one of my favourite finds from today

 

[Iron Patch]

Yep pretty happy with the results!
The harp button is one of my favourite finds from today

Yeah that and the lead are both interesting enough to make the day... but throw a Kings and 2 RPs on top and that's a seriously good detour off the copper trail.

 

[CoilFisher]

Wow you two are on a nice trail/site.
That is a lot of history.
All that tells quite a tale!

 

[CRUSADER]

Yep pretty happy with the results!
The harp button is one of my favourite finds from today

Yeap, not a button I've seen before - nice.

Georgius Rex - probably the 20th C Geo, as the style & letters are not 18th C, although it got white very quickly, so odd.

 

[Ahab8]

Man you guys find some incredible buttons and lots of them. What a day. Love that harp button

 

[Iron Patch]

Georgius Rex - probably the 20th C Geo, as the style & letters are not 18th C, although it got white very quickly, so odd.

No, it's most definitely old. This site was like a time capsule, a very small area and is where all 6 or 7 Rev War pewter buttons came out and very little else. We each got one worn copper, a few plain buttons between us, and I got one little flower button... and that was basically it. We never dug anything modern other than the occasional piece of modern trash like aluminum.

 

[Iron Patch]

Man you guys find some incredible buttons and lots of them. What a day. Love that harp button

But they are still always a surprise, and I quote... "Are you ___ing kidding me!"

 

[against the wind]

Congrats on a great hunt.
It looks like you found the site of an old Tailor Shop.

 

[kingskid1611]

Wow some nice ones! I bet those will go straight to a collection box.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

And the fun continues.
You guys consistently find the most buttons, and more importantly military buttons than anyone else. Maybe there was a thread shortage back then.

The 55 coppers you got in the last three hunts is just like a 3 hunt stretch Dave and I had in 2013.

Oh yeah , and some nice keepers. Out of curiousity does the lead piece have a "standard" type of weight ?

 

[Iron Patch]

And the fun continues.
You guys consistently find the most buttons, and more importantly military buttons than anyone else. Maybe there was a thread shortage back then.

Here's what's funny about that. IH and I have always been about finding the oldest sites we could, but as the years go on it's getting tougher and tougher so we now started going with the strategy that as long as a site is old enough for flat buttons and large coppers we are there! So my researched has changed a little, it's more about just having a place to dig rather than to go for the oldest possible sites we can find and likely killing a lot of time looking for them.

We recently discussed this on the drive to start hunt number 2, and what we figured is our coin count would likely increase, (and it has) but the old military finds would drop off quite a bit.... but look what has happened. So the strategy is probably not gong to change any, and really it has always sort of been the same... just dig old targets and see what happens.

 

[ironhorse]

And the fun continues.
You guys consistently find the most buttons, and more importantly military buttons than anyone else. Maybe there was a thread shortage back then.

The 55 coppers you got in the last three hunts is just like a 3 hunt stretch Dave and I had in 2013.

Oh yeah , and some nice keepers. Out of curiousity does the lead piece have a "standard" type of weight ?

We have been working hard at locating the right areas to look in and so far it hasn't failed; and there's a funny side to it too, I know for fact that we've driven by a couple of these sites before on days when we had no place to dig. The irony is that they came on a day when it mattered!

As for the little lead piece, I haven't weighed it to see if it is near or at any standard weights from the time ; my thoughts were it was used to plug something like a bottle ,or it was a game piece or something like that

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Game piece makes sense, and would make it very interesting. people had little free time back then, IE work hard or starve, so toys, and or game pieces are VERY rare. I've always said I like old toys. I don't mean 1960 hot wheels though. I only have a couple, one of those a broke in half lead rabbit.

 

[pepperj]

Nice to see that you also had a stellar day out with IP also and the finds are still coming up at a steady pace. Liking the harp button something that I haven't seen before also the King's Reg. one is a really nice find. What does the GR J5 item look like on the reverse side?

 

[ironhorse]

Nice to see that you also had a stellar day out with IP also and the finds are still coming up at a steady pace. Liking the harp button something that I haven't seen before also the King's Reg. one is a really nice find. What does the GR J5 item look like on the reverse side?

Not sure if its J "B" or "E" but it's meaning is beyond me
The back just seems to have the texture of the surface the molten lead was poured onto and hardened that way

 

[sutphin]

ABSOLUTLEY UNREAL FINDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Excellent buttons! Great to see so many Rev War relics coming out of the ground

 

[ironhorse]

Yeap, not a button I've seen before - nice.

Georgius Rex - probably the 20th C Geo, as the style & letters are not 18th C, although it got white very quickly, so odd.

Its a very interesting button
Some research later might shed light on its origin