Countdown...civil war to colonial!!!

HomeGuardDan

Bronze Member
Jul 15, 2011
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Williamsburg, VA
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All Treasure Hunting
Well Bill and I got back together this morning at the site of our most recent adventure. This was an primarily a 19th century site with a civil war era camp on a piece of land that had ample history from the 17th and 18th centuries. We kept finding pieces of those earlier years all while hunting a civil war era camp and 19th century house site.

The day started off a little slow as we spread out checking additional areas to no avail. Once we began to work back towards the camp and building sites the finds began to pick up striking first with a nice heel plate. A flat button here and a flat button there along with a plethora of scrap brass and lead. Finally I hit what I thought was going to be another good button. When it popped out of the ground I immediately thought another CS. Instead it was a US Navy button. these pre-civil war navies typically were worn by CS and militia troopers. To fool me even further, the button when dug looked like it was going to be a gem as all I could see was the top portion. Once the cleaning process began I noticed a horrible push on the face...oh well...still another war period button. I also dug a nice scale weight with great markings (19th century) which made me a happy camper.

The second half of the day began to slow down even while a few finds kept coming. I had probably dug a dozen or more buttons when Bill and I decided to go check out a couple other areas and then potentially head to an entirely different site. It was 2pm and we had to decide, to make matters worse I decided on the "one more lane" mentality and to my surprise it produced a matron head US Large Cent (1816-1839) and then a couple more two piece buttons. Aside from that, another early (18th century) apothecary weight and broken trapezoidal buckle popped up. Now it was 2:45 and we had to make a decision and we made the right one.

We decided to cut one of the two investigative walks out and zero in where I had found a random flat button in a field across the lane during our initial walk. I covered one end and Bill the other...my end provided nothing and I was hastily walking back to Bill to grab him and hit the road when he dug a good sign of early activity. Then did I, and then...we both dug a button at the same time. From there it was on and a race against time as we had only about 90 minutes to dig. Button, button, button and another button. I dug 14 or 15 in that final hour or so of digging along with other odds and ends (a third weight) and Bill came closer to doubling that than not.

In total I dug 27 buttons yesterday, including a CW era navy, a Large Cent, weight scales and plenty of other items such as buckles, toe taps, a nice early heated iron, etc. In two days (really just one full day and one half day) I've dug 43 buttons from this site including multiple coins and military buttons. With Bill's crazy ending to yesterday, we might have actually broken 100 buttons between the two of us in two hunts (if not it will certainly be close).

We will hopefully get back out there very soon, but with the holidays coming up, time is limited!

HH

Dan
 

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Upvote 22
Great hunt Dan! Digging all those buttons must be a blast. This looks like an awesome site and even though you guys like the older stuff, it seems really promising. Those weights are awesome and that iron will clean up nice. That boot heal looks really worn and not broken? ... looks like its from the right side boot! Cool finds man.
 

Had a great time man - that was quite an enjoyable hunt. I'd like to know how many holes we put in that field :laughing7:. Glad we stumbled across that little hotspot at the end of the day as its always nice knowing we have a good location to return to. And BTW - when you get those other 2 bullion or apothecary weights cleaned please post some pics. I'm curious what you have there. Until next time ....
 

Great hunt Dan. Looks like you guys had alot of fun.
How many times did you guys point to your shirts to indicate I found another button? Lol
Shame that trapezoid buckle wasn't complete. Still looking for my first.
 

My goodness that's a lot of digging, my legs are sore just looking at all of that stuff. You're gonna have to widdle a bigger relic stool if you're going to have more days like that. I too am intrigued by the weights and would like to see them cleaned up. Great hunt
 

Awesome hunt :occasion14:
 

My goodness that's a lot of digging, my legs are sore just looking at all of that stuff. You're gonna have to widdle a bigger relic stool if you're going to have more days like that. I too am intrigued by the weights and would like to see them cleaned up. Great hunt

Thanks man, I will post a better pic when I can. Believe it or not, these are actually cleaned, afraid to work much more until the completely dry out and then go back over with a brush and toothpick.
 

Had a great time man - that was quite an enjoyable hunt. I'd like to know how many holes we put in that field :laughing7:. Glad we stumbled across that little hotspot at the end of the day as its always nice knowing we have a good location to return to. And BTW - when you get those other 2 bullion or apothecary weights cleaned please post some pics. I'm curious what you have there. Until next time ....

Thanks man...had fun as always...this site will have some more secrets to share I am sure.
 

That's a lot of goodies! Congrats!
And fun was had by all!
 

Not had that XVII type of weight before. Nice haul as usual.
 

Killer haul, love the coin weight personally. Excellent finds!
 

Guess I missed this one Dan. Great digs. A really interesting site with some nice variety. Looking forward to the return trip.
 

Quite a hoard of buttons there Dan, Someone must have dropped there button box or you found an old paper mill site that use to make paper from old cloth. I can't wait to see how you guys do the next time you hit that spot.

HH,
ZDD
 

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