Best find for this year

[Ruslanmd]

It was first hit for that day

 

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[Mr.T]

WoW. Be very careful how you go about cleaning that. Very cool.

 

[Sovereignelite]

DITTO!

WoW. Be very careful how you go about cleaning that. Very cool.

 

[Ruslanmd]

I am not sure if I should clean this.

 

[Iron Patch]

Don't believe I have ever seen that one posted, and it looks like it could be in killer condition once cleaned. The problem is the orange is not a good sign and means you have to be extra careful. The first question is.... that is green corrosion on there, and silver plate below, right?

 

[Iron Patch]

I am not sure if I should clean this.

You should think about 'a proper' cleaning because it has the chance to clean up very nice, and be much more valuable. But there is no rush, it's fine the way it is until you decide.


I really think that button is incredible condition, just need to reveal it.

 

[Ruslanmd]

Yes it's green corrosion,and I am not sure if it is silver plate below

 

[Iron Patch]

Yes it's green corrosion,and I am not sure if it is silver plate below

I think it must be silver as I don't think there's any tombac GW buttons.

If I were you I would lay the button flat on it's face and put a few drops of lemon juice on the back to form a circle. Leave for maybe 15 minutes, dab with a paper towel, and then brush a little while still wet and see how it reacts. If you see a good result, then maybe do a very small portion of the face by soaking the edge and go from there. I suspect that type of corrosion will clean up fast and If you get to doing the face of the button you don't want to keep exposing the same parts over and over, so at some point if it seems to be working really well you'll probably have to make an all or nothing soak call. But being no one on here can see it in person I'm just telling you what I'd do if I wanted to do it in the most careful way possible. The lemon works fast so you just stay over it while it soaks.

 

[Ruslanmd]

Thanks for a tip.I'll try to clean it later and will keep you posted

 

[Iron Patch]

Thanks for a tip.I'll try to clean it later and will keep you posted

Just take your time and and be sure. That's way too good of a button not to. Hopefully it reacts as well with the juice as I think it will which would make the cleaning time fast, and the quicker the better. Confirming it's silver plate would also be a good thing because tombac does not react well to lemon juice.

I actually don't like giving advice on this one, so take my posts as just being a way to test one method of cleaning, but it is what has worked best for me.

 

[Ruslanmd]

I cleaned the part on the back side with lemon juice. The rust is gone and the color of the cleaned part become grey with purple.I really like to clean this but really afraid to mess it up

 

[Iron Patch]

I cleaned the part on the back side with lemon juice. The rust is gone and the color of the cleaned part become grey with purple.I really like to clean this but really afraid to mess it up

It might very well be tombac because that's the type of reaction you can get... a blue or purple color. (and that was a big part of the reason I suggested doing the back)

I would definitely stop any further cleaning, and confirm what the metal is. There is no hurry to clean this and right now anything you do would be very risky.


PS: Looking at the back it appears to be the remians a loop shank, and not really any sign it's a cast pewter button, so thinking it must be silver. Is the purple color on the grey metal, or where the grey is gone and the bare metal is exposed? If it's on the bare metal that's not too bad because that won't affect cleaning the plating, just the exposed parts. The orange spot on the face is probably a reaction to copper (and purple on the back too)- which is likely the base metal. I don't like seeing that on buttons before I lemon as they seem to have more trouble, but again as long as there's a lot of plating it will hold up.


It might help to post a pic of the back where you cleaned it.

 

[Ruslanmd]

The reason I don't want to clean it any more is that I think it was originally coated with something black. I don't want to take off this coat.

 

[Iron Patch]

The reason I don't want to clean it any more is that I think it was originally coated with something black. I don't want to take off this coat.

Yeah, just take a step back for a bit and educate yourself a little more on the button and go from there.

I'm pretty sure the black you are seeing is either silver toning, or dark grime in the engraving. A peroxide soak is usually how I'd tackle one that I am unsure of, but seeing that orange I didn't suggest it because it's basically an all or nothing approach, and you would probably need the lemon in the end anyway to finish the job.

Great find and good luck with the clean up. Do you plan to keep or sell?

 

[Iron Patch]

Check this out. Think it's the same as yours.

1789 George Washington Inaugural Button Americana RARE | eBay

 

[rickv14623]

Hope you post an "after" pic as well!

 

[smokeythecat]

It's definately a 1789 George Washington Inaugural button. It is known as the GW with linked states. Each of the state initials are in those little loopos around the edge. I think I'd call a museum specialist to see how to clean it. They were made of copper. CONGRATULATIONS! I owned one once, but got poor and had to sell it.

 

[Ruslanmd]

I haven't decided yet if I want to sell or not. I will post a picture after I clean it . Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Joshr29]

Awesome find! Personally, if I was staring at a button that could be worth 3 or 4 thousand I would go straight to a professional. I think it would be worth every cent. You will probably never find another so why risk it? Keep up the good work. HH

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Guess mind would be a 1795 Liberty i dug in Richmond County,Virginia.. I've dug a few of them before but always awesome to see one..