Eastern Ontario Hunt – Military Button & 1850 Halfpenny

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 5, 2019

I met up with my buddy pepperj on Thursday for a hunt in Eastern Ontario. He has a great relationship with the local farmers, probably because he farms as well. He got us permission for a site that had an old school, a blacksmith shop and as we later discovered a much earlier building not identified on the late 19thc map. The old school was located on a high outcrop of rocks, unfortunately a bunch of modern trash had been dumped there after the school was demolished in the 1950s. :BangHead:

We decided to concentrate our efforts on land to the west of the school, this is where we found evidence of a much earlier structure. It was here that my buddy pepperj found the ‘Flower’ button and to both of our surprise a ‘Royal Montreal Cavalry’ button! I did some online research but found no information on the history of this button. Based on its two-piece construction, I’m thinking it dates to the 1850s, the civilian ‘Star’ button would be of similar vintage. I found the remains of a ladies wristwatch, a horse harness bell and an 1854 Upper Canada Halfpenny Token. I also found a modern novelty token from Toronto; it never ceases to amaze me what turns up at these old sites. :icon_scratch:

While detecting I noticed a very old wind powered water pump half buried in the ground, so I decided to take a pic of the old water trough and the concrete base of the well where the windmill had originally stood. Note the old horseshoe cast into the concrete used as a handle and the iron rings on the edge of the tough to tie up the horses for watering. A herd of ‘young girls’ came over to investigate what we were finding, but they weren’t impressed so they wandered away to talk to a bull in the next field. :laughing7:

Thanks again to my very generous friend pepperj for sharing his site permission with me. :occasion14:

Thanks very much for looking,
Dave

Hawks88 · Oct 5, 2019

Wow! Congrats Dave. Great job on the restoration. Beautiful photos too. Thanks for sharing.

Wildcat1750 · Oct 5, 2019

Awesome finds and excellent restorations! :icon_thumright:

I don’t think the ‘girls’ would have been too useful to you if they did stick around... :laughing7:

Digger RJ · Oct 5, 2019

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

invent4hir · Oct 5, 2019

Hawks88 said:
Wow! Congrats Dave. Great job on the restoration. Beautiful photos too. Thanks for sharing.

Dave, Hawks88 says it all. If you return to that site, consider taking a thin medal rod to poke the ground to determine the extent of the old structure. Good luck!

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 6, 2019

Hawks88 said:
Wow! Congrats Dave. Great job on the restoration. Beautiful photos too. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Hawks. :thumbsup:

I find a lot of these Upper Canada half pennies and I would gladly have traded it for the 'Royal Montreal' button my buddy found. :laughing7:

Dave

Wildcat1750 said:
Awesome finds and excellent restorations!
I don’t think the ‘girls’ would have been too useful to you if they did stick around...

Thanks for your post Nick. :occasion14:

Probably not :laughing7:

but they were so curious and kept trying to lick us.
Best of luck to you in CT,
Dave

Digger RJ said:
Nice!!! Congrats!!!

Thanks Randy. :thumbsup:

invent4hir said:
Dave, Hawks88 says it all. If you return to that site, consider taking a thin medal rod to poke the ground to determine the extent of the old structure. Good luck!

Great advice my friend. :thumbsup:

You could vaguely make out the outline of the structure in the field.
It was probably 20' wide x 30' long, we're fairly certain it was an outbuilding as opposed to a house based on the finds.
Dave

Relicific · Oct 6, 2019

Those are some awesome finds Dave.
Nice going

Gridwalker306 · Oct 6, 2019

Great job! The Cavalry button is super sweet.

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 7, 2019

Relicific said:
Those are some awesome finds Dave.
Nice going

Thanks very much for your post Relicific. :thumbsup:

Best of luck to you,
Dave

J.Cache said:
Great job! The Cavalry button is super sweet.

Yes, my buddy was very excited when he found it.
He actually borrowed my toothbrush twice to clean it in the field. :laughing7:

Dave

Aureus · Oct 7, 2019

Those are some nice looking buttons and coin. Great job Dave!

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 7, 2019

Aureus said:
Those are some nice looking buttons and coin. Great job Dave!

Thanks very much Anton, although I can't take credit for the button find :laughing7:

Hope you're saving lots of history in the east,
Dave

A2coins · Oct 7, 2019

Great job on the Buttons Dave glad to see you doing so well,its always more fun to hunt with a friend Well done. I gotta get out soon just so busy this year, Tommy

thursdaythunder · Oct 7, 2019

Looks like another great hunt ..Congrats & Thanks for sharing!!
You guys did an awesome job on the coin and button restoration.

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 8, 2019

A2coins said:
Great job on the Buttons Dave glad to see you doing so well,its always more fun to hunt with a friend Well done. I gotta get out soon just so busy this year, Tommy

Thanks very much Tommy, pepperj and I only manage to get together a couple of times a year either in the spring or in the fall. He's always been very generous with sharing his site permissions. Of course, I repay him by letting use one of my 'demo unit' 2-ton excavators for a couple of weeks. :laughing7:

Dave

thursdaythunder said:
Looks like another great hunt ..Congrats & Thanks for sharing!!
You guys did an awesome job on the coin and button restoration.

Thanks for your post thursdaythunder, you live in a historic beautiful state. I worked for 5 years for a company based in Bangor. Although I live in Ontario, I was in Bangor at least 3 times each year, I even drove down from Toronto a couple of times.

Best of luck to you in Bridgton, :thumbsup:

Dave

blugotti1 · Oct 8, 2019

love those buttons!!!

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 10, 2019

blugotti1 said:
love those buttons!!!

Thank you Sir. :thumbsup:

My buddy did a great preservation job.
Dave

romeo-1 · Oct 10, 2019

Outstanding post and great finds. That button would have made my week...and that token cleaned up awesome!

RVRoamer76 · Oct 10, 2019

Jaw dropping finds in my world. You're always on some good sites digging awesome keepers. Congrats! Nice clean pics. Thanks for sharing.

ANTIQUARIAN · Oct 20, 2019

romeo-1 said:
Outstanding post and great finds. That button would have made my week...and that token cleaned up awesome!

Thanks for your post Patrick. :thumbsup:

My buddy pepperj how found the button, let it soak in cold peroxide to bring out the detail on his Montreal Militia button find.

My clean-up tool of choice, is a bench mounted polisher. :laughing7:

Hope you're having a great year,
Dave

RVRoamer66 said:
Jaw dropping finds in my world. You're always on some good sites digging awesome keepers. Congrats! Nice clean pics. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your kind words Patriot, I do apologize for the late response. :occasion14:

I tend to revisit older productive sites in my area over and over until they're just about exhausted.

Luckily, whenever I'm able to hook up with my buddy in Eastern Ontario he's always able to get permission for us to detect a virgin site.
He's a good friend and an experienced digger that I met here through Tnet, we're hoping to get together again the week of October 28th.

Hope life is treating you well in GA,
Dave