paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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I have to admit I've been bummed the fall season ended so abruptly. Between the snow and hunting season starting, most of my sites are now closed to me. I spent Friday and Saturday getting various things done at home, but by Sunday I just had to get outside, if even for a little bit. One of my old standby sites I've pounded for 2 years now is close to a road on private land. There are still hunters, but since I know the landowner I was able to give them the heads up on where I would be and it's not a spot they're around anyways so everyone was happy.
This is the site I did the bottle dig this Spring and found the surprise revolutionary war era navy button a few weeks back so I figured it might have a surprise or two left, but I certainly wasn't expecting this!
After digging some questionable iron signals I happened on a 72-74 signal that was relatively shallow. Thank goodness I cut a wide plug since I was pretty sure it was a shotgun shell, but even still the signal fell out of the bottom of the plug into the hole. Picking it up I first saw the back and recognized the shape of a dandy button and like always thought to myself wouldn't it be funny if it was a GW:
A pristine heraldic eagle George Washington Inaugural button!
I was terrified the patina would flake like the anchor button did so I kept it in a bag of dirt until I got home. Initially I was contemplating the wax treatment but I knew it would darken the surface and the design wouldn't be particularly defined. At the same time I couldn't let the whole button dry out since once the flaking started it would be hard to stop. What I ended up doing was rinsing it gently and putting it face-down on a wet paper towel. I allowed a small section of the back to dry and fussed with it gently to see if the patina would come up. Much to my surprise it was very solid so I slowly let more and more dry while keeping a close eye on it. As I went, I would carefully work dirty sections with a lightly moistened q-tip, but it didn't need any toothpicking and I left much of the dirt in the grooves for contrast. The result:
A completely stable and absolutely gorgeous button. I'm even able to get a full count of the indents, 63, which makes this a type 12-C.
The back doesn't show an imprint of the eagle, but the indents do show through which is interesting.
There were a couple of other non-ferrous finds but I really have hammered this site hard so it's a small grouping compared to my usual hunts:
The shoe buckle fragment is odd since I've only found a few here and it's a relatively high tone. The pewter spoon piece actually has the maker's mark: a crown, Best Britannia Metal, and "VR."
Between the navy button and this style GWI (apparently favored by those who served under George Washington), I'm starting to think that this was the home of a revolutionary war veteran. I'll be doing some research to see if the deed for this site corresponds to any of the local rosters, but if they were in the navy it might be a tough to track down. Fortunately I have the Winter to look into it.
I really hope this isn't the close of the season for me, but if it is I guess I couldn't ask for a better closing find!
This is the site I did the bottle dig this Spring and found the surprise revolutionary war era navy button a few weeks back so I figured it might have a surprise or two left, but I certainly wasn't expecting this!
After digging some questionable iron signals I happened on a 72-74 signal that was relatively shallow. Thank goodness I cut a wide plug since I was pretty sure it was a shotgun shell, but even still the signal fell out of the bottom of the plug into the hole. Picking it up I first saw the back and recognized the shape of a dandy button and like always thought to myself wouldn't it be funny if it was a GW:
A pristine heraldic eagle George Washington Inaugural button!
I was terrified the patina would flake like the anchor button did so I kept it in a bag of dirt until I got home. Initially I was contemplating the wax treatment but I knew it would darken the surface and the design wouldn't be particularly defined. At the same time I couldn't let the whole button dry out since once the flaking started it would be hard to stop. What I ended up doing was rinsing it gently and putting it face-down on a wet paper towel. I allowed a small section of the back to dry and fussed with it gently to see if the patina would come up. Much to my surprise it was very solid so I slowly let more and more dry while keeping a close eye on it. As I went, I would carefully work dirty sections with a lightly moistened q-tip, but it didn't need any toothpicking and I left much of the dirt in the grooves for contrast. The result:
A completely stable and absolutely gorgeous button. I'm even able to get a full count of the indents, 63, which makes this a type 12-C.
The back doesn't show an imprint of the eagle, but the indents do show through which is interesting.
There were a couple of other non-ferrous finds but I really have hammered this site hard so it's a small grouping compared to my usual hunts:
The shoe buckle fragment is odd since I've only found a few here and it's a relatively high tone. The pewter spoon piece actually has the maker's mark: a crown, Best Britannia Metal, and "VR."
Between the navy button and this style GWI (apparently favored by those who served under George Washington), I'm starting to think that this was the home of a revolutionary war veteran. I'll be doing some research to see if the deed for this site corresponds to any of the local rosters, but if they were in the navy it might be a tough to track down. Fortunately I have the Winter to look into it.
I really hope this isn't the close of the season for me, but if it is I guess I couldn't ask for a better closing find!
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