Geologyhound
Well-known member
I went out and found the property corner pins for a relative and had some time left over. I have hunted a nearby fallow agricultural field before but found pretty much nothing. Of course, it was mostly waist-high at the time. Since the field was just mowed for hay, I took another shot at it. It was still almost entirely devoid of signals while I was scouting around. More golf balls than anything else…. But, off to one corner I started picking up some iron tones in a small area. Since I was not finding much else out of here, I slowed down and started to cover the area a little more closely.
Within a couple minutes I turned up an old flat button. That got me interested and also got a red tailed hawk rather interested in me. He (she?) perched up in a nearby tree and screeched at me. The hawk kept an eye on me and I kept an eye on it. I also kept an eye out for the coyote I saw a little earlier. Sorry I didn’t get pictures of either.
My next line through the area picked up another flat button as did the next. Then I picked up what I’m pretty sure is most of a Tombac button. If so, that would be my first! When things started petering off, I went back over the area at a 90° angle and picked up three more buttons. Ever notice how it’s a little easier to keep track of where you’ve been when you follow the mow lines?
By the time I was done, I had what appeared to be seven flat buttons (six brass or bronze, one I’m not sure). That’s more flat buttons in one day than I have found the entire time I’ve been detecting. All of them have a brass eye with no foot (1785 to 1800?). There is a smaller button with relief on the front (it also has a brass eye and no foot), a little over a half of what I think is a Tombac, two possible bag seals (one of which has something like a Spanish cross on the front, the other one is taco’d), the bowl of what I believe is a pewter spoon, a shotgun shell head, a fragment of a bullet, what appears to be too small bore musket balls (grapeshot?), and four other somewhat circular items which may be other buttons. However, these are corroding differently than brass and do not appear to have any shank.
Most of these buttons were ringing up in the pulltab range (low 60s to low 80s on the D2). I did find two modern pulltabs, and off to the side and downhill a bit I found a couple modern can tops and pieces.
I am letting the buttons dry out for a couple days before I try to clean them up more. I will post more pictures back when I have them cleaned up some more.
Not sure what the big iron thing is. Some farm implement I guess. Perhaps some sort of wagon tow hitch? The ring is not truly circular in three dimensions. It has four up humps and four down humps to make the circle – if that makes sense.
I kept hoping for a coin. As old as these buttons are, any a coin would have shattered my age record. But alas it was not to be. Oh well, there’s always later (hopefully), right?
Within a couple minutes I turned up an old flat button. That got me interested and also got a red tailed hawk rather interested in me. He (she?) perched up in a nearby tree and screeched at me. The hawk kept an eye on me and I kept an eye on it. I also kept an eye out for the coyote I saw a little earlier. Sorry I didn’t get pictures of either.
My next line through the area picked up another flat button as did the next. Then I picked up what I’m pretty sure is most of a Tombac button. If so, that would be my first! When things started petering off, I went back over the area at a 90° angle and picked up three more buttons. Ever notice how it’s a little easier to keep track of where you’ve been when you follow the mow lines?
By the time I was done, I had what appeared to be seven flat buttons (six brass or bronze, one I’m not sure). That’s more flat buttons in one day than I have found the entire time I’ve been detecting. All of them have a brass eye with no foot (1785 to 1800?). There is a smaller button with relief on the front (it also has a brass eye and no foot), a little over a half of what I think is a Tombac, two possible bag seals (one of which has something like a Spanish cross on the front, the other one is taco’d), the bowl of what I believe is a pewter spoon, a shotgun shell head, a fragment of a bullet, what appears to be too small bore musket balls (grapeshot?), and four other somewhat circular items which may be other buttons. However, these are corroding differently than brass and do not appear to have any shank.
Most of these buttons were ringing up in the pulltab range (low 60s to low 80s on the D2). I did find two modern pulltabs, and off to the side and downhill a bit I found a couple modern can tops and pieces.
I am letting the buttons dry out for a couple days before I try to clean them up more. I will post more pictures back when I have them cleaned up some more.
Not sure what the big iron thing is. Some farm implement I guess. Perhaps some sort of wagon tow hitch? The ring is not truly circular in three dimensions. It has four up humps and four down humps to make the circle – if that makes sense.
I kept hoping for a coin. As old as these buttons are, any a coin would have shattered my age record. But alas it was not to be. Oh well, there’s always later (hopefully), right?
