Button Graveyard Part I

[Jaichim24]

So, I took the day off from work Friday to go check out an unused colonial road that a kid found a bayonet laying out on. The state archaeologist asked a few members of our club to scout the area to see if we could find a concentrated area of colonial artifacts. If so, they'd start an excavation. Well, it was a long day and nothing too interesting found. I did manage to dig up an old picture frame, perhaps Victorian period. They are going to research it and get back to me. Well, not wanting to waste a perfectly good vacation day and no finds I stopped off at this small park that had been hit very hard. A friend from my club hunted there and the coin finds are few and far between. It was a park in my town I never even knew was there, so I thought I would check it out. Very nice green grass, not a lot of traffic, thus not a lot of trash. I decided to lower my expectations and go all metal mode and dig anything small. I kept on digging buttons!

[attachment 94651 061308Huntpics2.jpg]So here's all of the "good" finds. I think the first one is a Civil War button made by the Waterbury button Co.

[attachment 94660 061308Huntpics4.jpg]Here is the back of the Civil War button. It came in two parts from the same hole. You can see some of the untarnished copper/brass/gold?

[attachment 94665 061308Huntpics6.jpg]Here's the back of the rest, I can't make out the words on the back of them. Too bad.

 

[Brandy[Ma.]]

If you take some J&B epoxy[found at any hardware store] and put some on the inside of the dome [not on the rim but the inside if the rim] and put the back on were you want it and put it right side up on a rag so it will stand up flat,the J&B will run down in a few hours will be set for show.Cool finds Jaichim

 

[Brian(upstateNY)]

n/t

 

[olddigger]

n/t

 

[ihuntrelics!]

n/t

 

[Craig in Alabama]

n/t

 

[MK_(MO)]

n/t

 

[Jaichim24]

Wow, does anyone have any links to a good Civil War button site? I found one site and with pictures of some for sale, and it looks like this button is either a Federal Officer's button, or a General Staff officers button. I would love to find a site that details when exactly Waterbury Button Co. made this particular button. The link is below, and a link to the one I think matches mine as close as possible.

Main button page

Pic of what mine looks like on the front

Also, does anyone have any advice on cleaning a button up like this? I can see a lot of the gold gild underneith the green corrosion. I believe the green got there from the back of the button. I have a home made electrolysis kit, but I'm a bit afraid that I'll ruin the button. I read somewhere that you have to get the green off stuff right away or else it will continue to corrode. Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Jai

 

[Craig in Alabama]

http://pweb.netcom.com/~jimyce/bm.html

 

[Jaichim24]

Ok, so I took the time to clean up the Officers button. Pretty good results, the image is much more crisp now. I can now see stars inside the shield on the eagle. All of the "general staff" officer buttons seem to not have these stars. I found one web site showing an officers button with stars in it, calling it a "Federal Officers" button. So I guess I will go with that. Enjoy..