RelicHunter97
Hero Member
Button Find Of a Lifetime! ~Pics~ UPDATE
Hello all you folks out there on the Net of treasure!
**Pics are up! Yay!**
**Preliminary appraisals by people who know a huge amount about military buttons and the like have valued this at between $500-$1000 dollars!! This makes it at least 10-20 times more valuable then my next most valuable find!! Woohoo!!**
So today Bob and I hit a field which has produced many old and good items in the past. It is a very large field, and they had recently turned it over. Unfortunately, we weren't hitting on much; I found a rivet, Bob found a musketball. Nothing exciting. After maybe an hour we decided to head over to the field where we stealthed at about a week ago, for we had gotten stuff there (I found a very old handmade rein guide and a button, and Bob found a couple buttons.) This particular field has produced many military buttons, musket balls, et cetera dating back to the war of 1812 era. We believe it to have been a muster field, because of the large amout of military items.
So we were doing rows back and forth, leapfrogging each other to give adequate room, and about 50 feet from the road I get a signal bouncing from nickel to pulltab. I'm thinking "oh great, more aluminum." Anyways, I flipped the dirt out and once I knew it was out of the hole, I brought out my pinpointer. I finally found it, contained within a small clump of dirt. I picked up the clump and when I turned it over I saw some kind of copper/brass disk staring at me. Since we had just been joking about aluminum and pulltabs, Bob asked me if that was what I found, with a chuckle. Things got very serious when I said "...No...It's a button with a cannon!" And then he asks me if I'm kidding him, which I wasn't. I brought it over to him and we removed the clump of dirt from the back (revealing no shank), and we investigated it. I knew it said (Ar)tillery on the bottom, but I couldn't make out what it said on the top. Then I finally realized it said (Massa)chusetts, thus saying (Massa)chusetts (Ar)tillery. There are letters in parentheses because the button was struck off-center, therefore cutting the letters off. Then we began going over the details: The cannon on wheels, the stack of cannonballs in front of the cannon, the incredible amout of detail on it in general (This field is VERY good on copper. It gives it a beautiful patina without making it corroded or crumbly/flaky.) Bob quickly called up our friend Paul, and by the time Bob was finished with his description of the button, he had it pulled up online. He informed me that the thing above the cannon was in fact a flag, with the Massachusetts state seal on it. Here is a link to the same button I have, just not mine: Woa89d Massachusetts Militia Artillery button circa 1810 This one is flawless, but mine isn't much more worn than it. All of the letters are clear, I can see the spokes of the wheel, all of the lines on the cannon, the state seal, the folds in the flag, the flagpole, but not the grass (I think). It's simply beautiful. And neither Bob, Paul, nor I had ever heard of or seen this button, and combined we have over forty years of relic hunting research and expericence. I was only able to find five other examples of it on the internet, only two in better condition. And I didn't see any mention of a backmark on them. The backmark on mine is "TREBLE GILT - BOSDON" (Boston) None of us had ever heard of a Boston backmark either.
I feel so amazingly lucky to have found this once in a lifetime button, and I'm still partially in a state of disbelief. Like I said, I hope to have the pictures up be tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Hello all you folks out there on the Net of treasure!
**Pics are up! Yay!**
**Preliminary appraisals by people who know a huge amount about military buttons and the like have valued this at between $500-$1000 dollars!! This makes it at least 10-20 times more valuable then my next most valuable find!! Woohoo!!**
So today Bob and I hit a field which has produced many old and good items in the past. It is a very large field, and they had recently turned it over. Unfortunately, we weren't hitting on much; I found a rivet, Bob found a musketball. Nothing exciting. After maybe an hour we decided to head over to the field where we stealthed at about a week ago, for we had gotten stuff there (I found a very old handmade rein guide and a button, and Bob found a couple buttons.) This particular field has produced many military buttons, musket balls, et cetera dating back to the war of 1812 era. We believe it to have been a muster field, because of the large amout of military items.
So we were doing rows back and forth, leapfrogging each other to give adequate room, and about 50 feet from the road I get a signal bouncing from nickel to pulltab. I'm thinking "oh great, more aluminum." Anyways, I flipped the dirt out and once I knew it was out of the hole, I brought out my pinpointer. I finally found it, contained within a small clump of dirt. I picked up the clump and when I turned it over I saw some kind of copper/brass disk staring at me. Since we had just been joking about aluminum and pulltabs, Bob asked me if that was what I found, with a chuckle. Things got very serious when I said "...No...It's a button with a cannon!" And then he asks me if I'm kidding him, which I wasn't. I brought it over to him and we removed the clump of dirt from the back (revealing no shank), and we investigated it. I knew it said (Ar)tillery on the bottom, but I couldn't make out what it said on the top. Then I finally realized it said (Massa)chusetts, thus saying (Massa)chusetts (Ar)tillery. There are letters in parentheses because the button was struck off-center, therefore cutting the letters off. Then we began going over the details: The cannon on wheels, the stack of cannonballs in front of the cannon, the incredible amout of detail on it in general (This field is VERY good on copper. It gives it a beautiful patina without making it corroded or crumbly/flaky.) Bob quickly called up our friend Paul, and by the time Bob was finished with his description of the button, he had it pulled up online. He informed me that the thing above the cannon was in fact a flag, with the Massachusetts state seal on it. Here is a link to the same button I have, just not mine: Woa89d Massachusetts Militia Artillery button circa 1810 This one is flawless, but mine isn't much more worn than it. All of the letters are clear, I can see the spokes of the wheel, all of the lines on the cannon, the state seal, the folds in the flag, the flagpole, but not the grass (I think). It's simply beautiful. And neither Bob, Paul, nor I had ever heard of or seen this button, and combined we have over forty years of relic hunting research and expericence. I was only able to find five other examples of it on the internet, only two in better condition. And I didn't see any mention of a backmark on them. The backmark on mine is "TREBLE GILT - BOSDON" (Boston) None of us had ever heard of a Boston backmark either.
I feel so amazingly lucky to have found this once in a lifetime button, and I'm still partially in a state of disbelief. Like I said, I hope to have the pictures up be tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed!
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