24 Civil War Buttons

[steelheadwill]

Greetings all,
Great weather lately here in New Hampshire
As you may know, I always keep my eyes open for out of place rock formations
on the flats of the tidal rivers.
In the past, some of these I've searched have been ballast piles from abandoned ships.
Had my eyes on this one for a while,
but put off searching it.
I got a good deep signal, dug a copper bracelet, a rescan of the hole indicated more targets, as I went deeper I encountered dense blue clay mixed with straw.
And buttons.
Eventually I moved stones and excavated a hole 4' X 2' and about 36" deep.
I made the large excavation after finding several buttons to avoid any damage to the remaining ones, understand that this was blind digging in a pit of muddy water.
End result was 19 'New Hampshire Volunteer Militia' buttons, (Tice NH 200A3)
and 1 General Service high convex, resembles Tice GS 226, is missing its back.
My first 'Muffin'
All but 2 of the NH buttons have intact shanks, and I see no reason why the rest won't clean up as well as these, I picked a random button to start.
5 hours of aluminum jelly and toothpicks yield 2 clean buttons.
Thanks to Buckleboy for resto advise
I believe there are more items at this site, tides limit search time.
I will update this post with new finds, and more cleaned examples.
I'm including a NH Militia Officer photo.
Thanks for looking, and Great Digs to You all.

 

[steelheadwill]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

That's amazing. I'm trying to picture the site. Was this along a river edge or something. Can you take a shot of where you found these. This is definitely banner material. I never considered digging 36" deep for anything. I'm gonna have to rethink that.

Thanks to all for your replies!
HCW, I don't have a pic of this site, here's what these old piles look like.
it sets all by itself surrounded by mudflats.
if you find one, the proof will be buried timbers, copper spikes, & foriegn stone,
such as coral heads,(up north)
Hoping to get some more of these cleaned, but it seriously takes 3 hours of toothpicking to get each one done, Am trying
Good Day & HH

 

[Iron Patch]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

That's amazing. I'm trying to picture the site. Was this along a river edge or something. Can you take a shot of where you found these. This is definitely banner material. I never considered digging 36" deep for anything. I'm gonna have to rethink that.

Hoping to get some more of these cleaned, but it seriously takes 3 hours of toothpicking to get each one done, Am trying

So what's the process? It almost looks like tar on those things. Do you apply the jelly, then toothpick a little, and repeat? How exactly are you doing it?

 

[mainer]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Those are soem nice looking buttons Herbie.

 

[steelheadwill]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

That's amazing. I'm trying to picture the site. Was this along a river edge or something. Can you take a shot of where you found these. This is definitely banner material. I never considered digging 36" deep for anything. I'm gonna have to rethink that.

Hoping to get some more of these cleaned, but it seriously takes 3 hours of toothpicking to get each one done, Am trying

So what's the process? It almost looks like tar on those things. Do you apply the jelly, then toothpick a little, and repeat? How exactly are you doing it?

Greetings IP,
I Paint the button with the jelly, it softens the blue crust somewhat, & loosens it from the button, take a fresh toothpick & flake off what will come,
then like shampoo, rinse & repeat
The aluminum jelly is pretty mild, phosphoric acid, ingredient in Coca Cola.
here's a shot after getting a nice large flake off the front of one.
it doesn't come off in large flakes often, & you need a nice dry tip on the pick to flick off every piece.
I'll get there eventually, but first back to the site for that buckle the soldier is wearing

 

[ModernMiner]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

I vote BANNER!!!
Amazing find Herbie, and a fantastic job on cleaning those buttons up. I hope to see your haul in a few magazines in the future.
Way to go!!!!!
-Doug-

 

[cntrydncr1]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

just awesome!!! it must be tough digging in those rocks too. nice job on the clean up as well!

 

[jamesbibb]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

AMazing recovery! That is a lot of buttons!

 

[Saabman]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Simply amazing!!!!!WTG!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Fantastic Find Will!

When I first saw the post I thought it was just gonna be a bunch of mucked up old CW buttons, but when I scrolled down, I was amazed at the results of the Aluminum Jelly treatment.

I think the NH buttons are the nicest designs of all of the state militia buttons!

Great find, and Great Job cleaning them!

 

[IronSpike]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Great recovery Herbie

You got my banner vote

 

[allen]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

That is awesome and way to keep your eyes open !!

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Outstanding button discoveries , Herbie ! Twenty is freakin AMaZING Cleaning them is quite a chore , but they have GREAT eye appeal . Fantastic condition for being buried in a ballast pile & tidal muck. Got my vote , dude

 

[DMN]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Well, that's called good research, observation, persistence and skill. Nice recovery! Those buttons will look nice in display. Hope you find more if the tides are forgiving. Might be the tides will clean out some of that area for you and expose some easier recoveries. Keep us in the loop. Some of us have yet to get out for a good hunt! Congrats.

 

[N.J.THer]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Nice haul...congrats on the button cache. Can't wait to see a picture of all the buttons cleaned up...

NJ

 

[jrsherman]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Herbie you got my banner vote as well! You've got some amazing finds, but this one takes the cake. Most people just don't realize how impossible it is to find this many buttons in one "hole", especially given the fact that you're going to be able to clean them up like you are.

This is a true historical banner item for this side of the pond! Very nicely done Sir!

 

[Tennessee Treasure Hunter]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Awesome finds Congratulations
TTH

 

[Indianhead Jones]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

It's almost unbelievable that you got all those historic buttons in one place!

Congratulations on a super haul....kudos, my friend!

Larry G.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Congratulations Herbie on the amazing buttons you found!
I wonder how they all came to be in that one spot?

Great find man!

Dave

I'm voting BANNER for this one!

 

[romeo-1]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Outstanding!!! These should be up top!

 

[timekiller]

Re: 20 Civil War Buttons

Herbie,
You've made another great find. Gotta love those water ways sometimes. Banner in Deed for the oddity of finding such a find.
PS.- Not sure if you ever use peroxide on your finds. But I can say that I see that crud alot cause that's how I hunt too.(rivers). And have had great outcomes with a small cook pot & peroxide on the stove over medium heat.Just put them in and once up to heat stirr with the end of a tooth brush every now and then for me sometimes as long as 5 minutes.I try to make sure the metal it's stuck on has time to heat up a expand.Cause once I feel it has I drain and pour the finds out on a papertowel & let dry.Once dried & cooled good that stuff normaly flakes right off in good size chunks.I have somtimes taking cold distilled water to finds like that right after coming off the stove & drained of peroxide.To enhance the temperature change in hopes of it helping seperate the crust build up.Just a thought you may want to try on one & see if it's quicker.
Banner (vote) is in.
Take Care,
Pete,