Don in SJ
Silver Member
- May 20, 2005
- 4,931
- 832
- Detector(s) used
- MINELAB SE Pro
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
The "Button Bike"
Back in 1995, my house was mostly destroyed by a house fire and during the 7 month rebuild, I used up all of my spare cash and savings. By the time the fall of 1995 came around, my favorite hobby besides metal detecting had been for many years road bicycling and I mean a lot of riding, over 3000 miles a year average.
Well, my road bike was always a bit too small for me and I wanted a new bike as soon as I could afford one. The one I had was a $650 bicycle back in 1989 when I bought it, a nice Aluminum framed bike Trek 1200. But, I wanted one with the new STI shifters, that is where the shift levers were on the brake levers and no more taking the hand off to shift with the lever on the down tube.
So, in the fall of 1995, I started my metal detecting up again after moving back into our rebuilt home and as I was going thru some of my previous to the fire finds, I noticed a military button I had found just prior to the fire that was really different.
I took the button to the next SJMDC metal detecting club meeting and showed it to some guys who knew their buttons and I was advised to buy Albert's button book. I ordered the book. After receiving the book, I was going through it to see if my button was there, I was rather pleasantly surprised to see something similar to it under the Topographical Engineer's section.
After reading the page and looking at the photos, I noticed there was a blip about a USTE button that was authorized by Congress in 1820 but none were ever known to exist! Well, the description of that button matched mine exactly! (Albert's TE1)
Now, I had to find someone who could tell me the value of such a button, this was in the days when we really did not use the internet much at all, so I had to do it the hard way by going to the library. At the library I found an address to the National Button Society. So I wrote a letter to them and a few weeks later I got a reply with the name, address and telephone number of the top military button collector in the country.
I called him the next day, and I gave him a description of the button. He hesitated and asked me again to describe it and kept asking me if I was sure it was a button. I said yes it is a button with an intact shank!
He mulled for a few minutes and said I will give you X amount for it. Well, when I heard the amount, I said SOLD! It was much more than I had even imagined, and without the internet, his offer at that time in early 1996 was a great amount of money in my opinion for a ground found button.
All I had to do was take photos of the button, send them to him, once he confirmed the button was what he thought it was, the deal would then take place. I did take the photos and send to him and he happily called me back and said the deal is on!
He sent the check out the same time I sent the button to him and I was one happy camper. Now, I had enough money to go buy a brand new composite framed road bike I was thinking and dreaming about.
When I went to the bike shop to look at the bike, the lady who is co-owner of the store, knew I had the fire, and knew I did metal detecting and asked how things were going.
I told her about the button and how that now was enabling me to purchase the bike I was getting, she loved the story. She loved it so much that she came up with the term "Don's Button Bike" and evidently would tell the story to many of her customers for years to come.
So, thanks my one hobby of metal detecting and being able to find a 4 figure valued button, I got to get a very nice road bike that I otherwise at the time would not have been able to pay cash for.
Thus, the story of my button bike...............
Side note, the button's photo is in Uniform Buttons of the United States, 1776-1865, Warren K. Tice, (Photo added to this post from his book)
My blurry photo was taken long before I even heard of digital cameras
I also enclosed a current photo of the button bike, now about 27,000 miles later 
Don in South Jersey
Back in 1995, my house was mostly destroyed by a house fire and during the 7 month rebuild, I used up all of my spare cash and savings. By the time the fall of 1995 came around, my favorite hobby besides metal detecting had been for many years road bicycling and I mean a lot of riding, over 3000 miles a year average.
Well, my road bike was always a bit too small for me and I wanted a new bike as soon as I could afford one. The one I had was a $650 bicycle back in 1989 when I bought it, a nice Aluminum framed bike Trek 1200. But, I wanted one with the new STI shifters, that is where the shift levers were on the brake levers and no more taking the hand off to shift with the lever on the down tube.
So, in the fall of 1995, I started my metal detecting up again after moving back into our rebuilt home and as I was going thru some of my previous to the fire finds, I noticed a military button I had found just prior to the fire that was really different.
I took the button to the next SJMDC metal detecting club meeting and showed it to some guys who knew their buttons and I was advised to buy Albert's button book. I ordered the book. After receiving the book, I was going through it to see if my button was there, I was rather pleasantly surprised to see something similar to it under the Topographical Engineer's section.
After reading the page and looking at the photos, I noticed there was a blip about a USTE button that was authorized by Congress in 1820 but none were ever known to exist! Well, the description of that button matched mine exactly! (Albert's TE1)
Now, I had to find someone who could tell me the value of such a button, this was in the days when we really did not use the internet much at all, so I had to do it the hard way by going to the library. At the library I found an address to the National Button Society. So I wrote a letter to them and a few weeks later I got a reply with the name, address and telephone number of the top military button collector in the country.
I called him the next day, and I gave him a description of the button. He hesitated and asked me again to describe it and kept asking me if I was sure it was a button. I said yes it is a button with an intact shank!
He mulled for a few minutes and said I will give you X amount for it. Well, when I heard the amount, I said SOLD! It was much more than I had even imagined, and without the internet, his offer at that time in early 1996 was a great amount of money in my opinion for a ground found button.
All I had to do was take photos of the button, send them to him, once he confirmed the button was what he thought it was, the deal would then take place. I did take the photos and send to him and he happily called me back and said the deal is on!
He sent the check out the same time I sent the button to him and I was one happy camper. Now, I had enough money to go buy a brand new composite framed road bike I was thinking and dreaming about.
When I went to the bike shop to look at the bike, the lady who is co-owner of the store, knew I had the fire, and knew I did metal detecting and asked how things were going.
I told her about the button and how that now was enabling me to purchase the bike I was getting, she loved the story. She loved it so much that she came up with the term "Don's Button Bike" and evidently would tell the story to many of her customers for years to come.
So, thanks my one hobby of metal detecting and being able to find a 4 figure valued button, I got to get a very nice road bike that I otherwise at the time would not have been able to pay cash for.
Thus, the story of my button bike...............
Side note, the button's photo is in Uniform Buttons of the United States, 1776-1865, Warren K. Tice, (Photo added to this post from his book)
My blurry photo was taken long before I even heard of digital cameras
I also enclosed a current photo of the button bike, now about 27,000 miles later Don in South Jersey
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