Awesome weekend ends in badge, no Free Masons, no...

[Fourman110]

GAR medal update 3: Badge... no Free Masons, no...

A half hour on Friday at an old park yields reached wheatie and my second mercury dime. A different park on Sat brings only a handful of clad then I decide to rehit a buddies 1890's house.

He was out of town but graciously allowed me to hit it again. I've been there four or five times before but it was time to try my new E-trac. In the eight days since I received it I not only got my first Mercury (been trying for two years) and after Fri now I had two!

Picked up a 1917 wheat, another 1940' s wheat and a handful of clad. Then picked up my 3rd Mercury! Had two nails in the hole with it to boot. Man how much did I leave behind? The Two Tone Ferrous was really working in this trash heavy yard. Hit the neighbors and only found a clock key and some clad.

Getting towards dark and about ready to head out when I got a nice repeatable tone. Pulled the plug and found a nail in it. Pinpointer showed more in the hole. Just twisted the digger after pushing it in the edge of the plug and a large shape appeared. As I put it in my pocket I was thinking I found a fairly old kid's badge with five points. It was solid and felt like good metal.

When I got home I rinsed it and realized I had a free masons badge or something.

That was until I put the loupe on it. Grand Army of the Republic. 1861- Veteran -1866..... Holy crap a Civil war medal in the middle of IA. From what I read it was made from melted down enemy cannons. What an incredible find for me. Doesn't look rare but now I want to start researching who would have owned the home and participated in the war pitting brother against brother. Any ideas how to start?

Some more info on the medal:
The Grand Army Badge

 

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[CoinandRelicMan]

Sounds like your loving the E-Trac all-ready, they do find stuff great ! Hope to see more great post like this one later =)

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[WheatWaffle]

Nice finds!

 

[Fourman110]

Update: I found another post on this site stating:

Over the years, a number of changes were made to the GAR badge, and these can be used to determine the age range of your find. Originally, on the reverse of the star each point bore a laurel branch. However, in 1886, three of the branches were replaced by emblems representing Sheridan's and Wilson's cavalry, and Hancock's veterans' corps. Yours appears to be one the post-1886 badges.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/132616-gar-veteran-medal.html

Based on that, it would appear this medal would predate the 1886 change. Also interesting to note that there is no serial number on the edge of the item. From what I've read some portion of the medals included a serial number of some type. Also interesting to note that I see no attachment point between the two top star points. On the outside of the two top star points, I can see a remnant of some type of mechanism that would hold the medal). Most of the examples I've seen have a pin between the two top star points. Odd to see the "outside of the star point attachment).

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice GAR badge! I dug one a couple years ago.

 

[Fourman110]

Update #2

We have a serial number. The dirt was really filling it in. On the edge of the top right point the medal is stamped B68871.