The find of a life time 1789 George Washington Inaugural Button & 1821 1/2 Real.

[Eagle 1]

HI all
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif] Well I went out today with my friend Doug he a new sight to try. So we wen't out this past sunday morning. He had found some nice [/FONT]coin's last week there. So I was hopping to fine a real or a doubloon maybe

. Well I was hopping anyway. So it was a hell of a climb to the top of the hill. But we got there and start to hunt. The first hour did not find much but gun shells. It was a big field and wood's. Doug went in the wood's and I hit the field. My first good find was a large brass bar a good 2 ft long and 2 in. in diam. 10 lb. My next fine was what I thought was a large cent. Then I saw it was to thin it was a large button. At first it just seem to be a plain flat large button. I rubbed it to get off the mud off and then I saw a G. I told my self it can't be. So I rubbed it one more time and there was the W. I could not believe my eye's

. A 1789 George Washington Inaugural Button it is a rare one. I first yelled at Doug but he could not hear me. So I ran to him and told him he better be sitting down. I thought his eye's were going to come out of his head. It took him a min. to get the wards out. When he did he gave me a big congrat's . He also told me that I got the big suck award for the year with a smile. So I wen't back and started up again. Within 10 feet I pull out a 1821 1/2 real what a day. I also pulled out a small button pewter and a spoon also pewter.

 

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[Tnmountains]

Nice find and congratulations. You may clean and do what you like with your finds. There are good articles on here about cleaning things you may wish to share some of your tricks.
Welcome to t-net. Good first post and happy hunting
TnMtns

 

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[silversweeper]

What an awesome find, both for the 1/2 reale and the GW button. Wish I could/hope I find one of those someday!

 

[Tim(Mo)]

Now that is SWEET !!

 

[BuckleBoy]

Ouch, and what a shame on the electrolysis, but a very nice button anyhow.

 

[DFW_THer]

I get the feeling you're going to hang on to that thing, so I say, clean that sucker however you see fit and nice find any way you rub it!

 

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

welcome to the GW club,i myself would not have zapped it.ouch! but it's your find.congrats!

 

[The Rebel]

WTG on a rare find!

 

[Silver Searcher]

nice find - but by cleaning like that - you cut value way down
congrats on it and other finds

More like ruined it you should never use electrolysis on valuble items especially copper, it fries them as can be seen by this button...I don't mean to criticise, it's a great find

SS

 

[AnnieF]

Wow. Just WOW!

 

[oldsalty19]

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

More like ruined it you should never use electrolysis on valuble items especially copper, it fries them as can be seen by this button...I don't mean to criticise, it's a great find

SS

Electrolysis is great...if you like pitting. Looks like it was sand blasted for awhile.
"find of a lifetime"....ruined.

Similarly a recent found gold coin was field cleaned (and it had to be field cleaned because there was the picture of it sitting on the dirt without a speck of dirt on the coin, even in the devices.) leaving it covered in cleaning scratches, if that coin had had a "D" mint mark the guy would have just wiped off 20,000. For those who say "I don't care", or "I don't sell" Well someday someone will be selling. I don't care who you are if you say you don't care about 20,000, or loosing 25-75% of the value of your finds, you're not being honest. Would those same people throw away half of the silver coins they have found ? We know the answer.

 

[jerseyben]

Nice find and congratulations. You may clean and do what you like with your finds. There are good articles on here about cleaning things you may wish to share some of your tricks.
Welcome to t-net. Good first post and happy hunting
TnMtns

I REALLY hope you want him to "share his tricks" as an example of WHAT NOT TO DO with a rare historic relic.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Even if you don't ever intend to sell your finds, there is certainly no good reason for not properly preserving/restoring something that is rare and of historical significance--the finder could have used the button for melt value too, but that doesn't justify not properly preserving it. There is certainly enough free information on the Internet and the original poster immediately knew it was a significant find. I do hope the press doesn't get wind of this story as those who want to restrict metal detecting will publicize stories like this in their argument. Oh well, I do sincerely hope that you can have someone professionally restore the button to any degree which is possible and that the electrolysis hasn't done too much damage. Do you happen to have a picture of the button "as dug?"

 

[ticm]

Good god man. What have you done. Brings a fricken tear to my eyes. Would have loved to have seen it before the Massacre.

 

[CRUSADER]

HI all Thanks
No it did not come of the ground like that. It look a lot cleaner then it is. For some reason when I use the sun to take my photo's. It still has a lite soiling on the button. But the sun makes it look blown out in the photo. The good thing with using the sun is it can give great detail. Yes it has been cleaned. I use electrolysis cleaning I have been using this on coins for years. It dose a great job on coin's and dose not hurt the Item. O by the way it was found with a E-Trac 12 in. down.

I was hoping you found it in saltwater

 

[johnnyblaze]

Maybe the title should read..

The fry of a life time 1789 George Washington Inaugural Button....

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Even if you don't ever intend to sell your finds, there is certainly no good reason for not properly preserving/restoring something that is rare and of historical significance--the finder could have used the button for melt value too, but that doesn't justify not properly preserving it. There is certainly enough free information on the Internet and the original poster immediately knew it was a significant find. I do hope the press doesn't get wind of this story as those who want to restrict metal detecting will publicize stories like this in their argument. Oh well, I do sincerely hope that you can have someone professionally restore the button to any degree which is possible and that the electrolysis hasn't done too much damage. Do you happen to have a picture of the button "as dug?"

Lucklily, or otherwise, the OP doesn't care too much about opinion as in 6 and 1/2 years hasn't found a single find worth posting a reply to ? (that's weird) Total posts=2 from his own find, (extreamly self centered ?) probably never see him again.

 

[Erik in NJ]

There are only 76 none make 77 now. I looked it up and mine in the med. between the G W. And that sucker is a cool $3,000.00 WOW. I took some new Photo's in the sun today.

If you click on the word "coin" in his original post it will take you to another forum where he does post it seems. He recently posted this statement above...the sad part is that whatever the button was worth, it is now probably only worth about 1/10th (or less) of its original value and we've lost a valueable piece of early American history that may have contained a new die variety. Anyone have a more definitive idea of what a cleaning like this would do to its market value?

 

[Gunrunner61]

Congrats on an awesome find!!!!.......................HH

 

[MNcoinhunter]

Very nice !!!