🥇 BANNER SWEET JESUS--I just dug a GW Inaugural--IN LOUISIANA

BuckleBoy

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It's been hours since I dug this and I'm still shaking!

My buddy, my wife, and I all went out for a dig and we got on a little site that had a couple of shoe buckle pieces and some nice pottery and clay pipe stems but wouldn't give up even one button or find. We got worn out with that little, tiny, petite habitants spot, and changed scenery. The killer find from the little site was Shangeolang's nice early complete SPUR! :headbang:

Before I get to the real story, here's the unbelievable video.



In the next site we went to, we settled down and decided to stay a while. Almost immediately, flat buttons and musketballs started coming up. My buddy shouted me over to see a silver come out of the hole--and it was a dateless 17?? Half Real! Nothing like seeing some colonial era silver in the early morning sun!!!

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He then got a nice dropped Enfield and I bagged a pocket watch winder

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Flat buttons kept coming. One was laying right on top of the ground and Shanguloid picked it up

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I also bagged a nice "Russian Blue" trade bead. Consensus is that these beads didn't circulate in the late 1800s, but I have found many of them at this early 1800s site before (no coins, etc. dug that dated after 1840). My personal hunch is that they date earlier than the "experts" think they do...

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But the REAL shocker came in a tiny package when I dug a little gilded flat button that looked like it had a heart-shaped wreath on it. I thought "that's nice" and called my buddy and my wife over to see it.

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After they'd started hunting again, I realized that there were LETTERS around the rim of the button and I wet the face of the button and was SHOCKED. It said "LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT" around the rim!!! I almost fell over and screamed for them to come back and see!

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I had STRONG suspicions that this was a George Washington Inaugural button--but I was in such a state of disbelief and shock (which you will hear on the video) that one would/could--EVER be dug in Louisiana, that I didn't even half believe my intuition! Trip back to the truck to google search the button confirmed it--and I was totally floored! This is a GWI-17B (cuff sized) GW Inaugural with a rarity value of R-4 (less than 25 examples known)!!

I just can't even hardly type right now just thinking about this. If you'd told me that I would dig a GW one day, I would have said "you're crazy!" If you'd said I'd dig it in Louisiana--I would have laughed at you! Well, here it is. Unbelievable--that this button made it down here, and that it survived the plow, and although it has some rim loss and no shank left, the gilding on it is almost ENTIRELY THERE. I just can't believe it--and perhaps I still will shake my head in disbelief a year from now at this find!

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Here are the rest of the finds we made. Keep digging and have faith--you never know what will be waiting in the next hole!

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Best Wishes and Happy Hunting,


Buck
 

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Upvote 104
Awesome find! Congratulations!!! BANNER!

Thanks so much for hitting "Nominate Banner" for this find--it's certainly one of the best things I've dug in 25 years!
 

Banner.

Well done.
 

Wow, who'd-a-thunk one would have made it down there??!! Congrats! I have yet to hear of one being dug outta the man's home state???
 

Whoa!!! Congrats Buck, she's a beauty! You never know!
 

What an amazing find, in fantastic condition- Huge Congrats to you!

-- Jeff --
 

You failed to mention that not 5 minutes before you unearthed that amazing button, you were saying I always dig the unusual buttons.........I am also in disbelief........I really wanted to go down that row lol You also had just said you hadn't seen a trade bead in a while, then there she was..........start talking about the gold coin I'm gonna dig!!! BANNER!!! For that amazing GW inaugural button!!! Huge congrats buddy!!! Shanegalang- THE Canefield Bandits!!
 

Pretty awesome find and cool to have some people there to share it with...
 

You failed to mention that not 5 minutes before you unearthed that amazing button, you were saying I always dig the unusual buttons.........I am also in disbelief........I really wanted to go down that row lol You also had just said you hadn't seen a trade bead in a while, then there she was..........start talking about the gold coin I'm gonna dig!!! BANNER!!! For that amazing GW inaugural button!!! Huge congrats buddy!!! Shanegalang- THE Canefield Bandits!!

I've been thinking about this button all afternoon and have revisited the pics several times. I agree Shang, definitely banner worthy. Super rare area to find, great gilting. WI 17-B R-5?

My vote is going in now Buck!

PS- I made my wife watch the video. She loved it (cough cough) lol.
Congrats again
 

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Truly an amazing find. To think that button made its way down here and was recovered 230 years later! Hats off to you for a fantastic find
 

Great hunt! What are the odds. Some wayward traveler at the inn probably lost that !
HH
 

Congrats on the sweet button and other finds. I have an uncle that lives in Port Hudson that has pulled some killer finds down there.
 

WOW!!!! Can't really say anymore except it couldn't have happened to a better AMBASSADOR of our GREAT hobby!!!!!!! MAJOR CONGRATZ....
 

Geez I thought you'd be getting over one those buttons down there in the fields like I thought my chances of getting was nil to zilch. But that what makes this hobby so great, once in a while there's a home run in the mix of finds. Congrats Buckle Boy you got a homer today for sure.
 

Congrats on the great button and other finds. I vote banner on that button
 

Huge congratulations on a killer button Buck :headbang: ...and an awesome post. Makes me wonder how that got way down there. Amazing hunt man.
 

That's an incredible find Buck, and in the Deep South no less! That's one I've been looking to recover for many years, but after digging many thousands of buttons and still no GW I doubt it will ever happen. Great job man!
 

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