paleomaxx
Hero Member
- Aug 14, 2016
- 825
- 6,780
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- 6
- Detector(s) used
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- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
First day of the year, and the very last target of the day! I tried out two new spots were I pulled up only a few bits and pieces so I went back to a site I found last Summer. It was buried in brambles and brush at the time and it had obviously been detected before so I left it for the Spring. This past weekend was unseasonably warm but we had already had snow so I knew all of the brush would be flattened and sure enough the conditions were perfect. Not too much in the ground, but the previous detectorist/s had left a few pieces here and there. After some decent finds I had reached the end of the day and I was about to pack up when I got a surface shotgun head stamp tone. I kicked over the leaves and to my surprise it was a pewter disc. I knew it was an 18th century button, but I would never have guessed in a million years that the front would have this:
Unmistakably a heraldic eagle; absolutely insane!!!
I had never seen or even read about a pewter variety of George Washington inaugural buttons so I knew it had to be at least super rare. I spent the last few days doing research and looking at the cleaned up button for any additional clues.
There's a little bit of lost pewter, but I put a stop to the crumbling so it should be stable now. It's actually in extremely good condition compared to most of my 18th century pewter buttons which I couldn't be more thankful for. The missing parts of the eagle don't appear to be due to ground action, but instead weak imprinting. I would guess that instead of being etched by hand, the already cast button was struck with a die. The strike being a little unequal in force resulted in a strong bottom left and a weak upper right.
It's very similar to the heraldic eagle style of GWI buttons that I've previously dug, but there doesn't appear to be any work done along the edges and it lacks the six pointed star:
The arrows and olive branch are also on opposite sides. The buttons are similar in size though and it's almost like a local button maker wanted to get in on the sales of the inaugural buttons so they created a die based off memory. My biggest question is why didn't more button makers do this since the GWI buttons were quite expensive so being able to quickly produce similar ones would have netted them quite a tidy profit. Perhaps making the die itself was such a rare skill that most couldn't find someone to do it and maybe this particular die broke quickly discouraging further production.
At any rate this has to be an extraordinarily rare piece for none to have previously turned up and I hope it can make it into the books as a newly discovered GWI button variety!
It almost seems silly to mention, but the rest of the hunt was pretty good too!
A couple of nice older buttons including one that seems to have had a ship stamped into it:
Really hard to get a good photo of it since the relief is low, but it looks close to the cuff button I found a few years back. I also found some nice coins including my first political hard times token:
Not in the best shape, but I like that it mentions Martin Van Buren since I have a good number of relics from William Henry Harrison and it's a nice addition to that little collection. Here's a non-dug one so you can see the details:
The only colonial copper of the day (and first for 2022!) ended up being in much better shape:
Not a bad 1787 Connecticut copper and it may be a Miller 26-kk.1 which if so make it rare with less than 40 know! But the best condition coin of the day was surprisingly an 1863 IHP. These cupro-nickel ones are usually toasted for me, but this one is in fantastic shape:
Only a few relics, but I suspect there are more and I'll absolutely be back many more times to see if I can't find the rest of the GWI buttons!
The shoe buckle chape is very intriguing since that style is extremely old for this area. I found it right in the cellar hole too. I'm hoping it means there are some early to mid 18th century pieces/coins hiding here, but we'll have to see. At any rate, I'm pumped for the rest of 2022 and I can't wait to see what else I can turn up here!
Unmistakably a heraldic eagle; absolutely insane!!!
I had never seen or even read about a pewter variety of George Washington inaugural buttons so I knew it had to be at least super rare. I spent the last few days doing research and looking at the cleaned up button for any additional clues.
There's a little bit of lost pewter, but I put a stop to the crumbling so it should be stable now. It's actually in extremely good condition compared to most of my 18th century pewter buttons which I couldn't be more thankful for. The missing parts of the eagle don't appear to be due to ground action, but instead weak imprinting. I would guess that instead of being etched by hand, the already cast button was struck with a die. The strike being a little unequal in force resulted in a strong bottom left and a weak upper right.
It's very similar to the heraldic eagle style of GWI buttons that I've previously dug, but there doesn't appear to be any work done along the edges and it lacks the six pointed star:
The arrows and olive branch are also on opposite sides. The buttons are similar in size though and it's almost like a local button maker wanted to get in on the sales of the inaugural buttons so they created a die based off memory. My biggest question is why didn't more button makers do this since the GWI buttons were quite expensive so being able to quickly produce similar ones would have netted them quite a tidy profit. Perhaps making the die itself was such a rare skill that most couldn't find someone to do it and maybe this particular die broke quickly discouraging further production.
At any rate this has to be an extraordinarily rare piece for none to have previously turned up and I hope it can make it into the books as a newly discovered GWI button variety!
It almost seems silly to mention, but the rest of the hunt was pretty good too!
A couple of nice older buttons including one that seems to have had a ship stamped into it:Really hard to get a good photo of it since the relief is low, but it looks close to the cuff button I found a few years back. I also found some nice coins including my first political hard times token:
Not in the best shape, but I like that it mentions Martin Van Buren since I have a good number of relics from William Henry Harrison and it's a nice addition to that little collection. Here's a non-dug one so you can see the details:
The only colonial copper of the day (and first for 2022!) ended up being in much better shape:
Not a bad 1787 Connecticut copper and it may be a Miller 26-kk.1 which if so make it rare with less than 40 know! But the best condition coin of the day was surprisingly an 1863 IHP. These cupro-nickel ones are usually toasted for me, but this one is in fantastic shape:
Only a few relics, but I suspect there are more and I'll absolutely be back many more times to see if I can't find the rest of the GWI buttons!
The shoe buckle chape is very intriguing since that style is extremely old for this area. I found it right in the cellar hole too. I'm hoping it means there are some early to mid 18th century pieces/coins hiding here, but we'll have to see. At any rate, I'm pumped for the rest of 2022 and I can't wait to see what else I can turn up here!
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