It's been hours since I dug this and I'm still shaking!
My buddy, my wife, and I all went out for a dig and we got on a little site that had a couple of shoe buckle pieces and some nice pottery and clay pipe stems but wouldn't give up even one button or find. We got worn out with that little, tiny, petite habitants spot, and changed scenery. The killer find from the little site was Shangeolang's nice early complete SPUR!
Before I get to the real story, here's the unbelievable video.
In the next site we went to, we settled down and decided to stay a while. Almost immediately, flat buttons and musketballs started coming up. My buddy shouted me over to see a silver come out of the hole--and it was a dateless 17?? Half Real! Nothing like seeing some colonial era silver in the early morning sun!!!
'
He then got a nice dropped Enfield and I bagged a pocket watch winder
Flat buttons kept coming. One was laying right on top of the ground and Shanguloid picked it up
I also bagged a nice "Russian Blue" trade bead. Consensus is that these beads didn't circulate in the late 1800s, but I have found many of them at this early 1800s site before (no coins, etc. dug that dated after 1840). My personal hunch is that they date earlier than the "experts" think they do...
But the REAL shocker came in a tiny package when I dug a little gilded flat button that looked like it had a heart-shaped wreath on it. I thought "that's nice" and called my buddy and my wife over to see it.
After they'd started hunting again, I realized that there were LETTERS around the rim of the button and I wet the face of the button and was SHOCKED. It said "LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT" around the rim!!! I almost fell over and screamed for them to come back and see!
I had STRONG suspicions that this was a George Washington Inaugural button--but I was in such a state of disbelief and shock (which you will hear on the video) that one would/could--EVER be dug in Louisiana, that I didn't even half believe my intuition! Trip back to the truck to google search the button confirmed it--and I was totally floored! This is a GWI-17B (cuff sized) GW Inaugural with a rarity value of R-4 (less than 25 examples known)!!
I just can't even hardly type right now just thinking about this. If you'd told me that I would dig a GW one day, I would have said "you're crazy!" If you'd said I'd dig it in Louisiana--I would have laughed at you! Well, here it is. Unbelievable--that this button made it down here, and that it survived the plow, and although it has some rim loss and no shank left, the gilding on it is almost ENTIRELY THERE. I just can't believe it--and perhaps I still will shake my head in disbelief a year from now at this find!
Here are the rest of the finds we made. Keep digging and have faith--you never know what will be waiting in the next hole!
Best Wishes and Happy Hunting,
Buck
My buddy, my wife, and I all went out for a dig and we got on a little site that had a couple of shoe buckle pieces and some nice pottery and clay pipe stems but wouldn't give up even one button or find. We got worn out with that little, tiny, petite habitants spot, and changed scenery. The killer find from the little site was Shangeolang's nice early complete SPUR!
Before I get to the real story, here's the unbelievable video.
In the next site we went to, we settled down and decided to stay a while. Almost immediately, flat buttons and musketballs started coming up. My buddy shouted me over to see a silver come out of the hole--and it was a dateless 17?? Half Real! Nothing like seeing some colonial era silver in the early morning sun!!!
'He then got a nice dropped Enfield and I bagged a pocket watch winder
Flat buttons kept coming. One was laying right on top of the ground and Shanguloid picked it up
I also bagged a nice "Russian Blue" trade bead. Consensus is that these beads didn't circulate in the late 1800s, but I have found many of them at this early 1800s site before (no coins, etc. dug that dated after 1840). My personal hunch is that they date earlier than the "experts" think they do...
But the REAL shocker came in a tiny package when I dug a little gilded flat button that looked like it had a heart-shaped wreath on it. I thought "that's nice" and called my buddy and my wife over to see it.
After they'd started hunting again, I realized that there were LETTERS around the rim of the button and I wet the face of the button and was SHOCKED. It said "LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT" around the rim!!! I almost fell over and screamed for them to come back and see!
I had STRONG suspicions that this was a George Washington Inaugural button--but I was in such a state of disbelief and shock (which you will hear on the video) that one would/could--EVER be dug in Louisiana, that I didn't even half believe my intuition! Trip back to the truck to google search the button confirmed it--and I was totally floored! This is a GWI-17B (cuff sized) GW Inaugural with a rarity value of R-4 (less than 25 examples known)!!
I just can't even hardly type right now just thinking about this. If you'd told me that I would dig a GW one day, I would have said "you're crazy!" If you'd said I'd dig it in Louisiana--I would have laughed at you! Well, here it is. Unbelievable--that this button made it down here, and that it survived the plow, and although it has some rim loss and no shank left, the gilding on it is almost ENTIRELY THERE. I just can't believe it--and perhaps I still will shake my head in disbelief a year from now at this find!
Here are the rest of the finds we made. Keep digging and have faith--you never know what will be waiting in the next hole!
Best Wishes and Happy Hunting,
Buck
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That's a well deserved banner for a rare button.
