- Mar 30, 2020
- 448
- 3,215
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
When I started metal detecting a couple of years ago I was blessed with a beautiful George Washington Inaugural Button. I didn't even know what it was but ironically set a GW quarter next to it for scale. Fellow TNet Members told me what it was. (pic attached)
I then foolishly sold it and used the money to buy a Nox 800 while retiring my White's Spectra V3i. I assumed I would find another GW. Still have that feeling. But finding the GW gave me the gift of button collecting. I have now purchased nearly 400 collectible buttons in the past year, mostly trains and trolleys from 1870 - 1920. Many quite valuable and some NOS. I have a sizeable collection of colonial buttons (many shown here in a case) which I have found detecting locally. So metal detecting and the GW specifically gifted me a wonderful hobby. Plus I found detecting two gilt NYC mercantile buttons from 1820-30, one of them previously unknown, which I gave to author writing a book on Mercantile buttons. These stores were most likely fitting and supplying whaling ships in a nearby port town.
It makes sense for a Metal Detectorist to love small metallic objects. I won't bore people sharing images of my collections here. But I will share an image of a beauty I just scored: a 1855-1860 NY & Erie Railroad with a depiction of the vaunted 4-4-0 locomotive. It means a lot to me because the Erie ran through my childhood home in rural upstate NY. Pre-Civil War train buttons are the gold standard for this type and only a few examples of this one are known to exist.
I then foolishly sold it and used the money to buy a Nox 800 while retiring my White's Spectra V3i. I assumed I would find another GW. Still have that feeling. But finding the GW gave me the gift of button collecting. I have now purchased nearly 400 collectible buttons in the past year, mostly trains and trolleys from 1870 - 1920. Many quite valuable and some NOS. I have a sizeable collection of colonial buttons (many shown here in a case) which I have found detecting locally. So metal detecting and the GW specifically gifted me a wonderful hobby. Plus I found detecting two gilt NYC mercantile buttons from 1820-30, one of them previously unknown, which I gave to author writing a book on Mercantile buttons. These stores were most likely fitting and supplying whaling ships in a nearby port town.
It makes sense for a Metal Detectorist to love small metallic objects. I won't bore people sharing images of my collections here. But I will share an image of a beauty I just scored: a 1855-1860 NY & Erie Railroad with a depiction of the vaunted 4-4-0 locomotive. It means a lot to me because the Erie ran through my childhood home in rural upstate NY. Pre-Civil War train buttons are the gold standard for this type and only a few examples of this one are known to exist.
