My Best CW Button! Virginia Seal! Sic Semper Tyrannus! Need cleaning tips?

vthepresident · Sep 5, 2010

Got out at long last today to one of my best sites. This is the place that I dug the silver 1794 pocket watch case that I took on Antique's Roadshow, and the Southern Cross of Honor medal which belonged to the property owner's grandfather, a field surgeon for the Confederacy. This button was found about four inches deep in the rock hard ground on a hill about fifty yards from the back of the house.
It still has lots of gilt showing through, and the rest seems to be nice green patina. The dome of the button isn't dented at all, and you can clearly see all the details through the dirt. The shank is intact, though bent over, and I can clearly read "Horstmann" on the back. All the backmark will be visible after more cleaning.

I only gently rolled the face with a moist q-tip, but I need some expert cleaning advice on how to preserve this relic. Buckleboy, or any of you other pros, could you post a link to what you think is the safest post under the cleaning section? I would appreciate it.

I showed the button to the owner, and after cleaning it, I am going to frame it and give it back to him, and he said he would mount it on the wall next to the framed Southern Cross I gave to him.
Thanks for looking,
V

MUD(S.W.A.T) · Sep 5, 2010

Hi

My guess is your going to get lots of cleaning advice. :tongue3:

If it is real valuable and your aware of it.... My advice is don't clean it all and let a antique restorer pro do it. :dontknow:

If its not so valuable and you don't mind the risk then follow the advice from someone here. :icon_thumleft:

A handful of people may know what to do but, they have years of experience and lots of practice. Trial and error for many years so they have a better sense what to do. :read2:

You need this kind of practice before you try it yourself on something real valuable but... :icon_scratch:

If its a good practice piece then have at it and clean away. (In a careful way) :notworthy:

Otherwise leave it alone. :help:

Great find !! :icon_thumleft:

Keep @ it and HH !!

umrgolf · Sep 5, 2010

Looks like you have a VA20C, which is a later made Virginia Staff button. I don't have the book, but the two like yours with that backmark are sold as CW period buttons on civilwarbuttons.com .. As far as the cleaning, Josh and I use half lemon juice and water.. we let the button soak for a minute or two then take an old tooth brush and dip it in the solution and gently brush the surface.. It's worked well for us but everyone has their own methods. :icon_thumleft:

umrgolf · Sep 5, 2010

After taking a second look, it seems like some of the green patina is starting to flake off on the high points. If you want to retain the green patina, you'll be better off dry brushing it rather than using the lemon juice or any other method to get the gold gilt to pop out. Those buttons can be very tough to clean, or tough to make the right call on what to do sometimes.. Josh, Buckleboy, and others will tell you that less is more if you aren't sure :thumbsup:

{Sentinel} · Sep 5, 2010

umrgolf2010 said:
After taking a second look, it seems like some of the green patina is starting to flake off on the high points. If you want to retain the green patina, you'll be better off dry brushing it rather than using the lemon juice or any other method to get the gold gilt to pop out. Those buttons can be very tough to clean, or tough to make the right call on what to do sometimes.. Josh, Buckleboy, and others will tell you that less is more if you aren't sure

PEles · Sep 5, 2010

Hi,

heat you up a small cup of peroxide in the microwave. Not scalding hot but pretty warm and drop the button in it. It'll start to bubble the dirt off. Leave it for 5 minutes.You may have to repeat the process a few times. Trust me I've been doing it for years. It won't harm the green patina at all. You may actually be able to see if it's gold or not after you treat it like this a few times. I do see a touch of red on it where the green has come off. That's still going to show and may need a touch up but that's no problem. I've been digging and cleaning civil war buttons for 25 yrs and have learned a few things. If you or anybody has a rough looking button and would like me to make it look 100 % better I can do it. I won't charge much 15.00, 20.00 and I guarantee you it'll look better and you'll like it much better as well as increasing it's value. Here's a few I've dug and cleaned over the years. These were all dug and cleaned by me.

Laszlo

kyphote · Sep 5, 2010

I've heard of peroxide for copper but not brass. Maybe I'll give that a test try. I use an 80/20 lemon juice solution (lemon/water), dunking and removing to lightly brush every couple minutes or so. Great find.

vthepresident · Sep 5, 2010

umrgolf2010 said:
Looks like you have a VA20C, which is a later made Virginia Staff button. I don't have the book, but the two like yours with that backmark are sold as CW period buttons on civilwarbuttons.com .. As far as the cleaning, Josh and I use half lemon juice and water.. we let the button soak for a minute or two then take an old tooth brush and dip it in the solution and gently brush the surface.. It's worked well for us but everyone has their own methods.

Thanks for the advice! I am going to sit on it for now, and maybe let a restorer take a look at it.

Question: the VA20C's that I saw had a backmark that said "superior quality." Mine says "Horstman & Co" I believe. Does this make it post war, or does anyone else have any information about variety?

kyphote · Sep 5, 2010

vthepresident said:
umrgolf2010 said:

Looks like you have a VA20C, which is a later made Virginia Staff button. I don't have the book, but the two like yours with that backmark are sold as CW period buttons on civilwarbuttons.com .. As far as the cleaning, Josh and I use half lemon juice and water.. we let the button soak for a minute or two then take an old tooth brush and dip it in the solution and gently brush the surface.. It's worked well for us but everyone has their own methods.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I am going to sit on it for now, and maybe let a restorer take a look at it.

Question: the VA20C's that I saw had a backmark that said "superior quality." Mine says "Horstman & Co" I believe. Does this make it post war, or does anyone else have any information about variety?

Horstmans fall into the CW realm. :icon_thumright:

civilman1 · Sep 6, 2010

Great button......I use aluminum jelly applied with a very soft brush(rouge brush from my daughter) rinse well and then use a mixture,50/50 lemon juice and water to pop any gilt that might be on the button.Work's wonder's :icon_thumright:

MonkeyBoy · Sep 6, 2010

I'd let it completely dry first... and be very careful around the rim.. I have a horrible story of breaking off part of the rim of someone else's Va staff button right out of the ground.. I just barely ran my finger across it and hit the rim and a 1/4 of it broke off!!! If it had been my find no big deal... but doing that to someone elses!!! I don't even like handling other people's find now!!! I just lay them flat in my palm and then hand them back!! The button had some loose dirt on the face.. I was just brushing that loose!! I'll never live that down... it came up yesterday when a nice find popped out of the ground.. 'Don't break the rim of this one!!" Doh!! Once the dirt is completely dry... it flakes off better.. then decide if one of the methods to get any remaining gilt to pop will work.. if there is only minor gilt left.. I'd leave it... I hate the way a button looks if it has had lemon juice/jelly on it and there was only minor gilt left.. the nice green patina is always a better look! Just my humble opinion.. and if you don't do anything to it now.. you always can later if the button needs it.. you can't undo it.. nothing worse then a great button that is now reddy looking form lemon juice... ugh! I think it speaks volumes when you go into a good relic shop and they have buttons that still have the dirt on them... "as found"...

MB