Cavalry Button

[Older The Better]

Got out this afternoon and started to hit an old barn site, hoping to find another barber coin or other old coins, I found a bit of a pocket knife… then it occurred to me it had rained and i decided to switch sites to see if i could see some more pottery as i detect. I’m always looking for makers marks to get a better idea of the site. I knew i probably wouldn’t score a coin and I’ve hit it hard so may come up totally empty but you never know.
So I got to my 1860-1870 site and did a lot of walking without a good signal, dug some iffy ones and got a big piece of scrap iron and a square nail that for some reason was giving me a deep small high tone… I hit on a couple round balls and that got me going a bit. Then I hit a nice high tone… can scrap. Walked a ways hit another high tone, can… walked more got a different high tone, more can, by that point I was about ready to call it but kept my line and hit another high tone… I was thinking here we go again but might as well get it out. When I realized it was deeper I was a little more careful. Then I hit a round edge with my finger, i removed a little more dirt and saw the shank that’s when I knew it was no can. I took a few pics and then out popped a beautiful domed button with an eagle on it and a little gilt flashing through the dirt.
Got it home and ran it under the sink and a c appeared on the eagle. Scored a civil war cavalry button, second one from this site and this one is In much much better shape. It’s a huge score for a little farm field in Kansas, it was Indian territory right up to the civil war and no skirmishes anywhere in the area that I know of makes civil war military artifacts extremely rare… still hoping to score a mine ball.
So I intend to do some googling but I’ll ask here too, how do you clean a guilted button? I assume an Andres pencil is too rough? I’d love to get as much detail as I can and to read the back but I don’t want to take off the remaining gold color. Have it soaking in filtered water right now, not quite distilled but it’s what I’ve got available.

 

[Gene Mean]

Great find! Congrats!!

 

[Nathan W]

Nice, that's a huge hole

 

[ncsuwolf]

Nice find. Your soil is apparently much nicer to buttons than in va. Be careful cleaning…..remember you can always clean more, but you can never clean less

 

[Older The Better]

Benefit of hunting a farm field, I’m not hurting anything turning over dirt. Since I got a good pin pointer what I’ve started doing is waving it over the ground where I get a signal depending on the reaction I’ll remove a little or a lot of dirt until I’m close then I’ll use my finger so I don’t damage the object… I start wide hoping to get a clear insitu and once I get a good idea I’ll narrow it down.

 

[Older The Better]

So I saw some say don’t soak them so I pulled it out and gave it a little scrub with a tooth brush and tested an Andre’s pencil on the crud in the shield. May not clean up as much as I hoped but it’s not terrible, little disappointed in the back mark so far

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Excellent find !

 

[Digger RJ]

Got out this afternoon and started to hit an old barn site, hoping to find another barber coin or other old coins, I found a bit of a pocket knife… then it occurred to me it had rained and i decided to switch sites to see if i could see some more pottery as i detect. I’m always looking for makers marks to get a better idea of the site. I knew i probably wouldn’t score a coin and I’ve hit it hard so may come up totally empty but you never know.
So I got to my 1860-1870 site and did a lot of walking without a good signal, dug some iffy ones and got a big piece of scrap iron and a square nail that for some reason was giving me a deep small high tone… I hit on a couple round balls and that got me going a bit. Then I hit a nice high tone… can scrap. Walked a ways hit another high tone, can… walked more got a different high tone, more can, by that point I was about ready to call it but kept my line and hit another high tone… I was thinking here we go again but might as well get it out. When I realized it was deeper I was a little more careful. Then I hit a round edge with my finger, i removed a little more dirt and saw the shank that’s when I knew it was no can. I took a few pics and then out popped a beautiful domed button with an eagle on it and a little gilt flashing through the dirt.
Got it home and ran it under the sink and a c appeared on the eagle. Scored a civil war cavalry button, second one from this site and this one is In much much better shape. It’s a huge score for a little farm field in Kansas, it was Indian territory right up to the civil war and no skirmishes anywhere in the area that I know of makes civil war military artifacts extremely rare… still hoping to score a mine ball.
So I intend to do some googling but I’ll ask here too, how do you clean a guilted button? I assume an Andres pencil is too rough? I’d love to get as much detail as I can and to read the back but I don’t want to take off the remaining gold color. Have it soaking in filtered water right now, not quite distilled but it’s what I’ve got available.
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Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Gare]

AMAZING FIND Thank you for sharing and your pictures were great also

 

[oldmxrat]

Nice find and worth all that digging!

 

[Trezurehunter]

Very nice military button find.

 

[Hunk-a-lead]

Got out this afternoon and started to hit an old barn site, hoping to find another barber coin or other old coins, I found a bit of a pocket knife… then it occurred to me it had rained and i decided to switch sites to see if i could see some more pottery as i detect. I’m always looking for makers marks to get a better idea of the site. I knew i probably wouldn’t score a coin and I’ve hit it hard so may come up totally empty but you never know.
So I got to my 1860-1870 site and did a lot of walking without a good signal, dug some iffy ones and got a big piece of scrap iron and a square nail that for some reason was giving me a deep small high tone… I hit on a couple round balls and that got me going a bit. Then I hit a nice high tone… can scrap. Walked a ways hit another high tone, can… walked more got a different high tone, more can, by that point I was about ready to call it but kept my line and hit another high tone… I was thinking here we go again but might as well get it out. When I realized it was deeper I was a little more careful. Then I hit a round edge with my finger, i removed a little more dirt and saw the shank that’s when I knew it was no can. I took a few pics and then out popped a beautiful domed button with an eagle on it and a little gilt flashing through the dirt.
Got it home and ran it under the sink and a c appeared on the eagle. Scored a civil war cavalry button, second one from this site and this one is In much much better shape. It’s a huge score for a little farm field in Kansas, it was Indian territory right up to the civil war and no skirmishes anywhere in the area that I know of makes civil war military artifacts extremely rare… still hoping to score a mine ball.
So I intend to do some googling but I’ll ask here too, how do you clean a guilted button? I assume an Andres pencil is too rough? I’d love to get as much detail as I can and to read the back but I don’t want to take off the remaining gold color. Have it soaking in filtered water right now, not quite distilled but it’s what I’ve got available.
View attachment 2197036View attachment 2197041View attachment 2197042View attachment 2197040View attachment 2197039View attachment 2197038View attachment 2197037

great save! really cool button