Not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4, YES 4 NC Staff Officer Buttons!

[nc-joe]

I am in total awe I thought I was having a great day helping a new detectorist learn the ins and outs of his new XLT and going over the how and why the adjustments do what they do, and we hit an older house after the crash course at the local community college.

I was amazed to find a nice assortment of coins, 1897 IH cent, 1900 IH cent, 1914 wheat cent, 1919 wheat cent, 1895 V nickel and a 1906-O barber dime. I was suprised to find a musket ball and a few odds and ends but absolutely blown away when I started pulling civil war buttons.

Best I can tell (thanks for helping with the ID Modern Miner) they are listed as Albert's NC 4 State Seal Staff Officer Buttons. I am really at a loss for words.... and that doesn't happen much!

Thanks for looking!

Sorry for the rough photos, but I am not going to attempt to clean the buttons. I am going to leave that to someone that knows what they are doing. There appears to be plenty of guild left on them...

 

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[Tristan]

Awesome day! I love the assortment of coins, and those buttons are just rockin!!!

HH Tristan

 

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[Goldiver]

Wow, incredible button finds! Are those coat size or cuff size? You probably already know this but some of the smaller cuff buttons show up as a pull tab while the coats show up around the zinc penny area on many detectors. The reason I mention this is I have a hunch there are some cuffs laying about in the same area. If by chance you tuned out pulltabs you may have tuned out some buttons. Anyway I hope you pull more out of there.

Steve

 

[nc-joe]

Wow, incredible button finds! Are those coat size or cuff size? You probably already know this but some of the smaller cuff buttons show up as a pull tab while the coats show up around the zinc penny area on many detectors. The reason I mention this is I have a hunch there are some cuffs laying about in the same area. If by chance you tuned out pulltabs you may have tuned out some buttons. Anyway I hope you pull more out of there.

Steve

Thanks for the reply, these are coat buttons, I was using my Explorer when I found them, they came in as 06 20 and 08 22 ID's Pretty close to a zinc penny (06 26, 07 25, 08 26 is where zincoln's usually show up on mine) I was digging all good audio responses. I was running some discrimination, but only mid to large iron (for the explorer users I was hunting in Iron Mask with the setting at 16)

 

[Painter65]

WTG!!!! yet another banner here..you guys are amazing up in NC..lol...gregg

We don't mess around here in NC.

Ill second that........................

 

[ModernMiner]

Nice finds joe would have loved to have been there to find some of that stuff with you guys.

Don't feel bad Chris, Joe didn't invite me either.
D-mn button glutton.
-MM-

 

[nc-joe]

Nice finds joe would have loved to have been there to find some of that stuff with you guys.

Wish I could have invited you guys, but I was a guest of a new detectorist. He wanted me to help him learn and understand his XLT, so I asked him to line up a couple sites and I would work with him. He has some really good sites lined up, which is great for a new detectorist. I hope to get an invite back to this site, I only covered about 1/4 of it.

 

[brnn53]

Incredible finds! I would only dry brush those buttons until you are sure that there is gilt present before using any kind of cleaner (aluminum jelly, etc.). That is a killer day's digging! Congrats!!
Mike
BANNER!!!

 

[DD-777]

Nice finds joe would have loved to have been there to find some of that stuff with you guys.

Don't feel bad Chris, Joe didn't invite me either.
D-mn button glutton.
-MM-

Apparently I'm no good either...

-"Buttonless DD-777"

 

[HolyDiver]

Oops, I dropped some of my buttons. Nice finds.

 

[dragon6banger]

very nice finds HH

 

[beetle662]

Civil war or not.... to find 4 of them at once is a great find!

Congrats!

 

[dfx willy]

wow nice finds!! that isnt a d under that 1914 is it? willy.

 

[ModernMiner]

Got to checking and had to add something to my first post.

These are not civil war buttons. Look close and you will probably find a star between the "Co." and "Waterbury" at the bottom of the button on the back. The backmark is late 1800s. Still great buttons, but not civil war. "Waterbury Button Co." was used from the 1860s for almost 100 years with a lot of variations. According to Tice this one is " * WATERBURY BUTTON CO." dm with large letters between two dotted rings, three piece button, late 1800s." Look at plate B-13 #14 if you have the book.
done dugit

Done Dugit,
I'm still trying to find this button info you mentioned in Tice's book. What page is that on?
Is there a picture of the button Joe has in Tice's book?
As far as Albert's book, it IS #NC4A listed on pg. 216 and pictured on pg. 215, correct?
Thanks,
MM

 

[watercolor]

Joe, you had a spectacular day!!

Those buttons are wonderful!

 

[Nate in Ohio]

Congrats on the buttons, don't know anything about em basically but that's pretty sweet. And yes as mentioned, PLEASE look at that 1914 wheat closer...there appears to be a speck or something that looks like it may be a mint mark...that penny could be huge deal worth big $$$$$...(i mean for a wheat...)

 

[Dman]

Way to go. Nice buttons.

 

[ModernMiner]

Got to checking and had to add something to my first post.

These are not civil war buttons. Look close and you will probably find a star between the "Co." and "Waterbury" at the bottom of the button on the back. The backmark is late 1800s. Still great buttons, but not civil war. "Waterbury Button Co." was used from the 1860s for almost 100 years with a lot of variations. According to Tice this one is " * WATERBURY BUTTON CO." dm with large letters between two dotted rings, three piece button, late 1800s." Look at plate B-13 #14 if you have the book.
done dugit

Done Dugit,
I'm still trying to find this button info you mentioned in Tice's book. What page is that on?
Is there a picture of the button Joe has in Tice's book?
As far as Albert's book, it IS #NC4A listed on pg. 216 and pictured on pg. 215, correct?
Thanks,
MM

Tice page 51 Plate B-13 Button #14 is the correct backmark time frame. All of the backmarks between 1850 and the 20th century are on that page. And the one I mentioned matches exactly. The large letters are a dead giveaway.

There is not an exact photo of his button in Tice because Tice only goes to 1865.

I don't know what is in Alberts because I do not have a copy of Alberts. Tice is the newer resource by over 20 years.

Done Dugit

Thanks DD, I see it now. I forgot that Tice's only goes up to 1865 buttons. That makes sense.
Ya learn something new every day here on TN.
-MM-

 

[romeo-1]

Way to go Joe!!!

I wouldn't be afraid to use a SOFT tooth brush with some dishwashing liquid on them while holding the button under running water.
They are obviously yours to do with what you want, you can't go wrong by under-cleaning them.

If there were 4 there, then there are probably the rest of the coat, maybe at least 4 more!!!!

I would not recommend using a toothbrush on these unless you want to risk losing any gilt which may be left...

 

[ModernMiner]

Way to go Joe!!!

I wouldn't be afraid to use a SOFT tooth brush with some dishwashing liquid on them while holding the button under running water.
They are obviously yours to do with what you want, you can't go wrong by under-cleaning them.

If there were 4 there, then there are probably the rest of the coat, maybe at least 4 more!!!!

I would not recommend using a toothbrush on these unless you want to risk losing any gilt which may be left...

I agree. I've done that before and it was a bit too abrasive. I now use an art brush and trim the bristles back to where they feel slightly stiff. I used the art brush with some Naval Jelly if the gilt is still in great shape. The buttons turned out super nice. I just located a jar of Aluminum Jelly today at Ace Hardware, so I will be switching to that now. A good water rinsing is a MUST if using the jelly.
-MM-

 

[ModernMiner]

Way to go Joe!!!

I wouldn't be afraid to use a SOFT tooth brush with some dishwashing liquid on them while holding the button under running water.
They are obviously yours to do with what you want, you can't go wrong by under-cleaning them.

If there were 4 there, then there are probably the rest of the coat, maybe at least 4 more!!!!

I would not recommend using a toothbrush on these unless you want to risk losing any gilt which may be left...

Yes. Do it the slow way and get a beautiful, glittering result. Naval jelly or aluminum jelly is best. There was a good thread I seen around here somewhere about buttons. Can't find it though...


done dugit

That was Buckles button cleaning post you're thinking of. I think it was in the "cleaning" section.
His method works great and my buttons look a lot better that my old methods when I first started finding them. Heck, I may go back and reclean some of my original buttons before I learned the new method.
"Thanks Buckles!"
-MM-