Militaria at the old cellar holes!

xcopperstax

Silver Member
Sep 3, 2018
2,508
4,870
Massachusetts
Detector(s) used
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I've been in a bit of a treasure slump lately. I went out on Saturday to a couple fields that were possibly colonial and really found nothing but a wheat, a barrel banded musket ball, and I eyeballed a marble.... oh and I found many deer ticks on my person while detecting some nearby woods. Pretty bogus as far as hunts go. Sunday I gave it another try and headed out with the Silver Bandit and a few other detectorists. We were searching two old cellar hole sites out in the woods. I had detected out here once before and found very little but these types of spots really get my imagination fired up. I try to imagine what it was like when they used to be houses. The first area was a giant deep cellar hole that had been detected pretty hard but we were hoping there were still some things to find. I was not finding anything when Ryan kindly suggested that I check the briars as nobody had gone in there yet. I found a nice little flat button right away with the words "warranted standard gilt" on it with a semi squashed shank and a plain face side. Maybe I am detecting the wrong kinds of spots but I don't find buttons too often! This had me excited. Probably around five minutes later right on the edge of the hole I got an iffy signal with some high tones in it. I dug down and ended up finding a perfectly intact civil war general service cuff button! A first for me so I was very happy! Civil war stuff in Mass is not super common. This site had all kinds of cool stuff, a possible graveyard, smaller cellar holes, a cart road, and a well that you could fall into if you didn't watch where you were walking. The beauty of these places is really something. Not much was being found so we walked a few hundred feet down the road to the next cellar hole that had a well, an animal pen, walled in front yard, a possible root cellar and stone walls galore. I had only been there a couple minutes when I got a nice sounding high tone in the front yard and dug out a green copper disc that looked like a large cent but a little smaller. I went to brush the dirt off and saw a full but bent shank with some writing... flip it over and brush the dirt a little and it turned out to be a Massachusetts militia button!!! It turns out that it was a match to the one that the silver bandit had found there a week before! These were most definitely from the same owner / coat. I was pretty much floored for the day! The site had a lot of iron in the ground so there were a lot of false tones and things that sounded good but turned out to be nails. We detected for another hour and called it a day. I took the buttons home and dropped them in some fresh lemon juice for a bit. (that might have been a bad move but it seemed to have cleaned them up pretty well) I believe the Mass militia button may dates to the 1820's -30's and says London extra quality on the back. There is some gilt left on it and I hope to get some naval jelly on it to see if I can reveal any more. I count myself really lucky to have found these buttons: I was just saying the other day that I have not found any military buttons! ...so when it rains it pours I guess! It's probably not particularly valuable in this condition but finding a piece of Mass history in Mass? Priceless! Thanks joining me on my treasure adventure!
 

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Upvote 34

Steve in PA

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Jul 5, 2010
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The Massachusetts Militia is a nice looking button. Wouldn't mind finding one of those myself.
 

BLK HOLE

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Aug 3, 2017
4,725
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Northern Virginia
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Super buttons!!! Congrats:occasion14:
 

pa-dirt_nc-sand

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Apr 18, 2016
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Sweet Mass button and fun hunt story. Congrats and thx for sharing!
 

Oct 5, 2014
31,886
35,424
Massachusetts
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Killer button recovery, congrats! :notworthy:
 

basque-man

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Sep 26, 2014
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Great Mass button!! She is in great condition! :icon_thumleft:
 

dirtlooter

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Jun 5, 2014
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mid western ARK
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very cool buttons, gotta love buttons with history like those. congrats
 

A2coins

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Dec 20, 2015
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Ann Arbor
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Good job on the Mass button and cool relics Great read thanks. Tommy
 

lenmac65

Silver Member
Jul 28, 2009
2,619
8,074
Massachusetts
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That is a great button. Another item for my growing bucket list. Congrats and good luck out there.
 

OP
OP
X

xcopperstax

Silver Member
Sep 3, 2018
2,508
4,870
Massachusetts
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Garrett AT Max
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That is a great button. Another item for my growing bucket list. Congrats and good luck out there.

Thanks Lenmac65! It wasn't really on my list because my list was so broad: I simply wanted a military button. What I want is a rev war button. Doesn't have to be anything specific just something that can be attributed to it. My thinking is that they are waiting to be found where we least expect it. Good luck!
 

RVRoamer73

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Apr 19, 2016
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Georgia
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CTX 3030 Nox 800
Stealth 720i ,RTG 6"
Lesche GS 36
Predator Raptor
TRX pp
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I've been in a bit of a treasure slump lately. I went out on Saturday to a couple fields that were possibly colonial and really found nothing but a wheat, a barrel banded musket ball, and I eyeballed a marble.... oh and I found many deer ticks on my person while detecting some nearby woods. Pretty bogus as far as hunts go. Sunday I gave it another try and headed out with the Silver Bandit and a few other detectorists. We were searching two old cellar hole sites out in the woods. I had detected out here once before and found very little but these types of spots really get my imagination fired up. I try to imagine what it was like when they used to be houses. The first area was a giant deep cellar hole that had been detected pretty hard but we were hoping there were still some things to find. I was not finding anything when Ryan kindly suggested that I check the briars as nobody had gone in there yet. I found a nice little flat button right away with the words "warranted standard gilt" on it with a semi squashed shank and a plain face side. Maybe I am detecting the wrong kinds of spots but I don't find buttons too often! This had me excited. Probably around five minutes later right on the edge of the hole I got an iffy signal with some high tones in it. I dug down and ended up finding a perfectly intact civil war general service cuff button! A first for me so I was very happy! Civil war stuff in Mass is not super common. This site had all kinds of cool stuff, a possible graveyard, smaller cellar holes, a cart road, and a well that you could fall into if you didn't watch where you were walking. The beauty of these places is really something. Not much was being found so we walked a few hundred feet down the road to the next cellar hole that had a well, an animal pen, walled in front yard, a possible root cellar and stone walls galore. I had only been there a couple minutes when I got a nice sounding high tone in the front yard and dug out a green copper disc that looked like a large cent but a little smaller. I went to brush the dirt off and saw a full but bent shank with some writing... flip it over and brush the dirt a little and it turned out to be a Massachusetts militia button!!! It turns out that it was a match to the one that the silver bandit had found there a week before! These were most definitely from the same owner / coat. I was pretty much floored for the day! The site had a lot of iron in the ground so there were a lot of false tones and things that sounded good but turned out to be nails. We detected for another hour and called it a day. I took the buttons home and dropped them in some fresh lemon juice for a bit. (that might have been a bad move but it seemed to have cleaned them up pretty well) I believe the Mass militia button may dates to the 1820's -30's and says London extra quality on the back. There is some gilt left on it and I hope to get some naval jelly on it to see if I can reveal any more. I count myself really lucky to have found these buttons: I was just saying the other day that I have not found any military buttons! ...so when it rains it pours I guess! It's probably not particularly valuable in this condition but finding a piece of Mass history in Mass? Priceless! Thanks joining me on my treasure adventure!

Cool button save. Congrats! Yep! Gotta be careful around them old wells deep in the woods. I've seen some so deep I wouldn't want to know what in all was down in them. Nice story!
 

Isaac

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Oct 11, 2013
773
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Great job saving those Massachusetts militia buttons!
 

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