War of 1812 Infantry Officer's Coat button and first (partial) cannonball?

hbeaton · Apr 30, 2021

Have not posted on TNET in a bit though I have been detecting up a storm recently. Had posted many recent finds on other private group pages on the book of faces when quite frankly nothing compares to TNET so my humble apologies fellow TNETers! Had an interesting hunt today and did not realize it until I got home. Sorry for the long post in advance. Headed back to the colonial field I have been hitting recently and that has produced several early cut spanish, a likely colonial trash pit that produced early wine glass bottoms, pipe stems, an early bit boss, larger iron pieces along with the usual oysters shells, animal bone and pipe stems. Well today finds were scarce but did manage what I believe is my first (partial) rev war/war of 1812 period cannon ball! Also found a blank flat button with "superfine" on the back and some other writing I couldn't discern. But the find of day turned out to be my first War of 1812 Infantry officers coat button! I tried my best to pictorially capture the remnants of what is a beautifully crafted button (maybe I will also get around to turning the damn photos before posting too!) A lot going on the front of this concave dude! The button is copper with Sheffield silver plate on the front. There is an eagle facing left with bolts of Jupiter in one talon and an olive branch in the other. Underneath the eagle is pointed shield with "RT" for regiment in the bottom, on the right of a shield is a downward sword and three rifle bayonets pointed upward with a small forge cap with a feather in the foreground. On the left of the shield is an American flag draped over a sideways drum. Wow. Very cool find indeed and pretty rare according to the Albert's book!

HH!
-Hunter