Maryland Militia Officer Button & More!

[rtde3]

Hey Guys!
I hope everyone had a Good Christmas! I know I sure did!
Yesterday I went hunting with a buddy of mine at a property that he got permission to hunt. This spot has a few old home sites on it where just the chimneys are left. We went there for the first time on Friday and hunted home site #1 for 2 hours before it got dark. It was a hard place to hunt because it had been logged a few years ago & they left that place a mess. There were downed trees & branches everywhere. :P I did find a large flower button & an 1898 IH. Here is a picture of that site & my finds for that day.


Then yesterday we went back but decided to hunt another home site hoping it would be a little easier. But it was the same as the first site with trees down everywhere. We knew there had to be some good stuff hiding there so we hit it the best we could. Here is a picture of that chimney.

I found a little hot spot on the side yard where I was pulling up flat & ball buttons. Clothes line spot maybe?
It was there that I hit a good signal and my MXT was reading Button! When I first saw my target after digging a healthy scoop I thought it was just another shotgun shell. But what I was really looking at was the back of a nice Maryland state seal button! Here's me when I found it!

You can tell by this picture it was cold out that morning & the wind was blowing hard on us on top of that hill.
Here is a before & after picture of the button. I cleaned it with a tooth pick at first & them lemon juice.


It turns out this is an officer staff button intended for officers of Maryland militia units, who generally sided with the South.
I did find it in Southern Maryland. The back mark says " Scovill Mfg Co Waterbury" & believe it or not still has a small piece of thread wedged behind the shank as you can see in this picture.

I also found a few other things there! Like an old shoe buckle & a square buckle.

And 4 other buttons. One ball type button has a dipple design on it, then there's a snap type button, and another button that says "union made" around the top and bottom and "Star Union" in the middle. And the last button says "Imperial Quality" .

Also this Lock plate.

And suspender clip.

And these china chips!


Thanks for looking & Happy New Year!

[rtde3]

More Pictures

[VOL1266-X]

SCORE Rob!!! Excellent finds and great cleaning job on the MD button. You and Ronnie had a frigid but very productive hunt. HH, Quindy.

[aquachigger]

Nice post and great button. Seeing the thread in the shank makes me wonder if a whole coat of them may be nearby

[ftwhite03]

That button cleaned up nice! Good job!

[lazanca]

Great find. The pics are great.

[MKnTenn]

Killer button, beautiful. HH

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Very cool Maryland button man!
The condition of that baby is amazing!

Looks like a nice place to hunt!
Dave

[MaineRelic]

Very nice MD militia button ! I also really like the flower filled cornucopia button you found at the first homesite . It looks like weed wackers a chainsaw and maybe even a chipper may be needed to cover all the ground at that site excellent pulls from both sites. M.R.

[{Sentinel}]

MAN O MAN LIKE I SAID, A BANNNER BUTTON HANDS DOWN When you sent me the advance photos earlier today I nearly fell back out of my desk chair,

that is the finest Maryland button that I've seen dug in a LONG TIME w/ the correct backmark...and you deserve it all day Rob, Congratulations buddy and you have my banner

vote without question! A First Rate post all the way around let us get this up top!

[Sniffy]

What an amazing Button! Simply marvelous.

[joeyfresh]

That thing cleaned up nice!! I don't know much about Maryland buttons but I'll take Josh's word for it. Congrats

[rtde3]

SCORE Rob!!! Excellent finds and great cleaning job on the MD button. You and Ronnie had a frigid but very productive hunt. HH, Quindy.

Thanks Q! Hey after you told me that I had a lock plate I found this website showing ones that are close to mine & say the same thing with the same crown! Thanks for IDing that thing for me!
http://www.antique-padlocks.com/lever_iron_vr.htm

Nice post and great button. Seeing the thread in the shank makes me wonder if a whole coat of them may be nearby

Thanks AC! If there is one I hope it's not under one of those trees!

That button cleaned up nice! Good job!

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with the way it cleaned up!

Great find. The pics are great.

Thanks!

Killer button, beautiful. HH

Thanks Bud!

Very cool Maryland button man!
The condition of that baby is amazing!

Looks like a nice place to hunt!
Dave

Thanks Dave!
Other than the down trees it is a pretty good spot!

Very nice MD militia button ! I also really like the flower filled cornucopia button you found at the first homesite . It looks like weed wackers a chainsaw and maybe even a chipper may be needed to cover all the ground at that site excellent pulls from both sites. M.R.

Thank You M.R.!
I wish I had a tractor back there!

MAN O MAN LIKE I SAID, A BANNNER BUTTON HANDS DOWN When you sent me the advance photos earlier today I nearly fell back out of my desk chair,

that is the finest Maryland button that I've seen dug in a LONG TIME w/ the correct backmark...and you deserve it all day Rob, Congratulations buddy and you have my banner

vote without question! A First Rate post all the way around

WOW! Thanks a lot Josh!
This button was twice as hard to clean as the one I found down there with you. :P But I think it came out better!
I remembered what you told me to do with the Lemon juice last time & it worked good on this one!
Mike (Woodland Detectors) & others were telling me that I should dip it in the lemon juice. And that helped a lot.
But I got to a point where the caked on hard dirt was not coming off. Like in this picture.

Then I heated the lemon juice in the Microwave and dipped the button in there. And the rest of the hard dirt came right off with a small paint brush that I cut down so the brush was stiffer. Modern Miner gave me the brush Idea! Thanks Doug!
I really did not think it would turn out so nice.
Thanks again for your Banner Vote!

What an amazing Button! Simply marvelous.

Thanks Sniffy!

That thing cleaned up nice!! I don't know much about Maryland buttons but I'll take Josh's word for it. Congrats

Thanks Joey!

[Hutch911]

Beautiful button Rob!!! You don't see many of those dug!!

[bookfisher]

Outstanding Civil War button! Scovill used that backmark from 1850 to 1865. Can't ask for one in better dug condition than that!

[birdman]

One of the coolest sites I have seen! Fantastic button and glad Santa did ya right.

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Hey Rob,

Just wanted to let you know a little about this plate as I had the same one in blue,
up until about a month ago when I sold it! I've seen this plate in both blue and purple before.

English Staffordshire Transferware Plate 1840 - 50.
Has a number of mythical decorated scenes of Mid-Victorian England.

My BANNER vote is in for you Rob!
Dave

[James from TN]

That is the best looking button I have seen in a long time. You did an outstanding job cleaning it.

[Steve in PA]

Sweet Maryland button! Looks like those sites have potential for anything from Colonial to the mid 1900's.

[ModernMiner]

That is the best looking button I have seen in a long time. You did an outstanding job cleaning it.

I agree with James. That is a BEAUTY Rob!!! Nicest one I've seen posted here in a loooooooooong time. No damage, AND a piece of thread still!
I vote BANNER!!!

That flower button is very nice too. Glad you and Ronnie had a great hunt.
I know we were all bugging you to "clean that button" so we could see it. We were dying to see the results, and I was halfway up to MD today with my bench grinder to help you out. That's OK, I'll help with the next cleaning.
Way to go Big Guy. (They didn't have a Margarita smiley, so I had to cheer with beer)

-Dug-