washingtonian
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2005
- Messages
- 6,509
- Reaction score
- 12,900
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Puget Sound
- Detector(s) used
- Equinox 800, Whites DFX
Hi everyone,
Well, I know most of you are East Coasters so as I write this at 8:30 pm PST most of you won't read it until morning. I'm feeling like this might be a longer post so grab a cup of coffee and come along for a ride!
It started this morning when I called an inn at a nearby town. It looks like an old place so I chatted up the innkeeper. Turns out it's only around 30 years old but the building behind the inn was a saloon starting in the early 1880s. That sure got my attention. The innkeeper told me he sold that property to a guy a few years back and gave me his info.
I drove to the town and met the guy who owns the (former) saloon. I explained I am a history buff, chatted him up about the property, then asked if I could detect. He was really skeptical and "didn't want holes all over his lawn". I explained my process of cutting plugs and assured him that I would leave no trace I was there. He gave me a tentative okay but seemed skeptical and asked me to be careful.
I sampled the property (it's probably a quarter acre) and didn't find much in the first 30 minutes. Then I got a weird signal that bounced between a zinc and copper penny (12-38 to 12-42) at 2 inches. I figured there wouldn't be anything old that deep but I was bored so I investigated.
Turns out it was a 6 button spill. Check it out:
Well, I scanned that area hard and found a total of 14 (full and partial) buttons in a 6' x 6' area. The rest came in ones and twos. Very strange but also really fun. I'm not much of a military buff so I didn't really know what I was on to. However, this is in the area of a fairly large military presence so it generally makes sense. Still not sure how that many buttons end up in that small of an area.
Here are all 14:
I did the rest of the yard for another 2 hours or so and didn't turn up a single old coin. Very weird, I have to imagine someone thoroughly hit it before.
I knocked to tell the owner thanks on the way out and told him about the button spill. He seemed interested and told me a military family lived here before him. I asked him if he'd like to keep one of the buttons as a keepsake and he lit up. He said "Wow, really?". I said, "Sure, I have a whole pocketful." The next part was the best, he was like "Wow, okay that is so cool. Thank you so much. I'm really glad I got to meet you!" I gave him some pointers on cleaning it and he shook my hand vigorously before I left.
It felt really good to turn a skeptic into an enthusiast. I'm sure that guy will have a much more positive outlook on detecting for the rest of his life because of that one little experience. Really neat!
Here are some cleaner photos of the buttons:
I still had a couple hours of daylight and decided to return to a standing permission I have. It's the same place I found the Morgan a couple weeks back along with lots of other cool coins and relics.
Pretty early on I hit my first old nickel from the property, an 1897 V nickel. That was fun. First V of the year for me. Then a little while later I got an 1903 Indian Head Penny. Awesome! I only found 10 last year and that's already my 4th this year. My next signal after the Indian was really similar and only a foot away. I was hoping I had another Indian and saw it was a wheatie. I figured it was older being so closer to the Indian and took a closer look. I thought I saw 1909-S and figured there was no way. Probably a 1929-S. I wiped a little more dirt away and it was unmistakable:
I flipped it over and realized the back was way too crusty to tell if it had a VDB. Either way, I was really stoked! I've never found a 1909-S or 1909-S VDB.
After several cleaning methods at home I could not get a VDB to appear:
Too bad. I guess I'll have to keep looking for that elusive coin.
Here are some photos of the overall finds. There were a couple common date wheats, a 1949 Jefferson and a tax token in the mix too.
Thanks so much for looking and as always, good luck in the hunt!
-W
Well, I know most of you are East Coasters so as I write this at 8:30 pm PST most of you won't read it until morning. I'm feeling like this might be a longer post so grab a cup of coffee and come along for a ride!
It started this morning when I called an inn at a nearby town. It looks like an old place so I chatted up the innkeeper. Turns out it's only around 30 years old but the building behind the inn was a saloon starting in the early 1880s. That sure got my attention. The innkeeper told me he sold that property to a guy a few years back and gave me his info.
I drove to the town and met the guy who owns the (former) saloon. I explained I am a history buff, chatted him up about the property, then asked if I could detect. He was really skeptical and "didn't want holes all over his lawn". I explained my process of cutting plugs and assured him that I would leave no trace I was there. He gave me a tentative okay but seemed skeptical and asked me to be careful.
I sampled the property (it's probably a quarter acre) and didn't find much in the first 30 minutes. Then I got a weird signal that bounced between a zinc and copper penny (12-38 to 12-42) at 2 inches. I figured there wouldn't be anything old that deep but I was bored so I investigated.
Turns out it was a 6 button spill. Check it out:
Well, I scanned that area hard and found a total of 14 (full and partial) buttons in a 6' x 6' area. The rest came in ones and twos. Very strange but also really fun. I'm not much of a military buff so I didn't really know what I was on to. However, this is in the area of a fairly large military presence so it generally makes sense. Still not sure how that many buttons end up in that small of an area.
Here are all 14:
I did the rest of the yard for another 2 hours or so and didn't turn up a single old coin. Very weird, I have to imagine someone thoroughly hit it before.
I knocked to tell the owner thanks on the way out and told him about the button spill. He seemed interested and told me a military family lived here before him. I asked him if he'd like to keep one of the buttons as a keepsake and he lit up. He said "Wow, really?". I said, "Sure, I have a whole pocketful." The next part was the best, he was like "Wow, okay that is so cool. Thank you so much. I'm really glad I got to meet you!" I gave him some pointers on cleaning it and he shook my hand vigorously before I left.
It felt really good to turn a skeptic into an enthusiast. I'm sure that guy will have a much more positive outlook on detecting for the rest of his life because of that one little experience. Really neat!
Here are some cleaner photos of the buttons:
I still had a couple hours of daylight and decided to return to a standing permission I have. It's the same place I found the Morgan a couple weeks back along with lots of other cool coins and relics.
Pretty early on I hit my first old nickel from the property, an 1897 V nickel. That was fun. First V of the year for me. Then a little while later I got an 1903 Indian Head Penny. Awesome! I only found 10 last year and that's already my 4th this year. My next signal after the Indian was really similar and only a foot away. I was hoping I had another Indian and saw it was a wheatie. I figured it was older being so closer to the Indian and took a closer look. I thought I saw 1909-S and figured there was no way. Probably a 1929-S. I wiped a little more dirt away and it was unmistakable:
I flipped it over and realized the back was way too crusty to tell if it had a VDB. Either way, I was really stoked! I've never found a 1909-S or 1909-S VDB.
After several cleaning methods at home I could not get a VDB to appear:
Too bad. I guess I'll have to keep looking for that elusive coin.
Here are some photos of the overall finds. There were a couple common date wheats, a 1949 Jefferson and a tax token in the mix too.
Thanks so much for looking and as always, good luck in the hunt!
-W
Last edited:
Upvote
72
If I were a betting man I would say they came off the Bridge Coat, Officers and Chief Petty Officers wear them, the enlisted Pea Coat does not have that many buttons. The rest of your hunt was a killer Wash! Love that 1909-S
