I got up before the sun did this morning, and decided to check on a permission north of here, and at the western edge of todays snow belt. I was just going to look, honest. It's a pretty big farm. We have been finding some Civil War and more modern items in the area, which was settled before the Revolution. Even got a few Zincolns the farmer must have dropped. Or something like that. Anyway, I got there about 7:15 just to check to see if anything had been done as I've invited a couple folks to dig and its a big farm, but the relics seem to be concentrated on two hilltops. There have been other, much later goodies found there, but I have always felt there was an older house on the property. It's right next to a creek and an old mill, farm goes back to the mid 18th century. There are places in the field we haven't even been in yet, it takes awhile to do a large farm, and I do travel to detect quite a bit. I'm not very interested in parks, because of the modern stuff there. I like the history. Wellllll...two weeks ago someone I was with found two 18th century buttons in this one little section we hadn't been in before. I was surprised. I also found half of a Rev War officer's type repousse (probably didn't spell that right), the kind that had the thin brass or pewter face and had a wood or bone back. I think there is something on the face, but I haven't had the time to study it. Last week was CW in Virginia, and now I'm up north, although I am in the process of cleaning my CW iron buckles as this is being written. When I got to the field I was shocked and thrilled to see the farmer had DISCED part of it! So now there is a chance we can find more stuff, after all a 6" deep disc can turn up some stuff. I was just planning on checking it out, but even though I had my good clothes (and best shoes) on, I decided I'd walk the area we found the two 18th century buttons. I wasn't there very long and got a signal. A large .69 musket ball. Now that COULD be CW, but we haven't found any of those on this site before, just Union minies and all but 1 were drops. One Enfield also two weeks ago. Walked on a bit and found a piece of broken redware, yes, it's a relic, so I kept it and an amber gunflint sticking out of the ground. Now that's a tough save! I haven't found one is so long I forget when it was, so I was getting excited. Found 5 shotgun shell bases and then started finding tombac buttons, first one, then two then three. I did read some iron on the Deus but ignored it. I can go back, and the iron isn't going anywhere. The excitement is going strong now. You have to picture this setup. I have a lightweight dress jacket on, dress slacks and an expensive pair of don't dig in these shoes on. I wasn't GOING to dig, but that disc just made me do it! The area I was digging was a relatively small area and I was getting cold fast. Pulled another button out of the ground, this one the plow had gotten pretty good, Made of brass. No way to identify it. Then I got the signal that ended the day. It ended because I was freezing. Another brass button, this one the size of a quarter. I stuffed it in my dress slacks pocket, I hadn't even brought a pouch or pinpointer with me as I really hadn't planned on doing this. The pants had to be washed, btw. All the buttons were very dirty and I didn't see anything on them. Dirt up there is darker reddish brown, and hot like the Virginia dirt but not quite as bad. I did all the errands I had to do and then had my happy nap. So about a hour ago got last week's Civil War iron going in a bath of Iron Out in hot water to clean it all up. I had bought a tupperware style tub to put everything in, later tonight or tomorrow. I had fished out the items from today from my pocket and started washing them off. I scrubbed the heck out of the tombacs, I mean, they're tombacs, and the little brass broken one is toast, if there was anything on it, there isn't now. Just a shank and a little metal where the button was. And lastly I moved to the bigger brass button. Was hoping it was a dandy. It was pretty caked in dirt. No shank. I had MOST of the dirt off the face when I stopped dead in my tracks (and almost threw up), sort of, when I realized there was a wheel on the face of the button. I have a small collection of Rev War buttons I have dug or bought over the years and I knew immediately what I had. I removed all the dirt from the back and most of it from the front to reveal an American Rev War enlisted man's coat button. After looking for the house on this farm for about a year now, not only do I find it, but found a marked Rev War button. I'm just sitting here staring at it. I had never dug one of those before, I have dug USA's some Mass. buttons and French and a British button or two, over thirty years, but this blew me away. On the button is a cannon facing right, with the flag pole and flag flying on the left side of the button. It is a Rev War American artillery enlisted mans' button. A first for me and I first started digging Rev War about 1985. Now for the pics.
This has been my best year since about 1987. And considering all the new gold, EVER.
This has been my best year since about 1987. And considering all the new gold, EVER.
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