A crazy rare Revolutionary War period General Washington cufflink.

[Aureus]

Got a nice holiday miracle this morning.
While going through various pieces of copper from my late December detecting trip I have noticed a pretty worn but interesting partial cufflink that seemed to have a right facing profile on it. I didn't pay too much attention to it at first, thinking I might have found one of the George III profile pieces.


To my surprise,after a bit of the research,it appears to be one of the rare types of early American patriotic jewellery. In fact, Heritage Auctions had a silver cufflink of the exact same type describing it as an Extremely Rare Circa 1775-1780 George Washington Shanked Cufflink The price realized seems to corroborate their statement and they mention knowing of only one other existing piece of this type (no mention of existence of the brass ones what so ever).


You can notice the clearly visible letters G-E (General) on the lower left and W-A (Washington) on the top right.
It's funny, but just a few days ago I was complaining to a friend of mine about the fact that I have never found any GW relic and questioning the possibility of ever finding one.Well it seems like I got way more than what I was hoping for as this item predates the inaugural buttons and was made before the end of the Revolutionary War.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Aureus]

Definitely the correct ID on that cufflink, and the first one of that type I've seen posted. Just a terrible shame about the condition. I found a rare G. Washington cufflink and it is also considered Rev War period or at least pre-inaugural. One of these went for 11K at heritage back in 2008.

Yes, it's always sad to find something exceptional in a bad shape, but I prefer this condition to not finding the relic at all.
That's a great cufflink that you have found, I believe I have seen a similar example online, crazy rare as well.

 

[Aureus]

Awesome little surprise treasure you uncovered and great ID work. Congrats!!

Thanks pa-dirt_nc-sand

 

[Aureus]

Well ain’t that flippin’ awesome! I would have dumped it in the button bucket and never realized what I had.

There was a chance that I would have done the same thing. Thankfully with the season being over I have way more time on my hands to go through the ''unremarkable'' finds

 

[Aureus]

WOW awesome find! Congrats!

Thanks Whyme

 

[Aureus]

AWESOME find, glad you ID it

I couldn't be happier. Not something I would normally expect to pull from the trash pile.