Critterhunter
New member
Yesterday a friend and I headed out to a patch of new woods we've never explored. This was a strategic location in terms of foot traffic over the years by the looks of it. A few wheats surfaced for both of us within the first twenty minutes, always a good sign. Then I get a perfect 143 signal and knew I was going to dig a nickle. Just a question of what kind of nickle it would be. Out pops a 1915 buffalo. Good start to the day, I thought. Still have to look at it under a loop in the hopes that it's the 1916 double die strike on the date, which would be about $2500 in worst condition. My luck can't be that good, though, in particular based on what happened this day...
Feeling pretty good about my early head start on the finds compared to my friend we continued to hunt. He head for a small patch of open area while I wandered off to the left a good 40 or 50 yards. Wasn't too long before he yelled something and came running over, as he said that he just dug a half but hadn't cleaned the dirt off yet to see what it was. We he got to me he used his thumb to swipe off the dirt and reveal his find, which turned out to be a 1920 Walking Half in unworn condition. According to the book it's either about a $45 to $85 or so coin depending on just where the grade would fall, but it's somewhere in that range for sure. Wow, nicest walking half I've seen, but he put a small scratch in it. He wasn't expecting it because the signal was broken like a screw cap, and he later found there was iron near it in the ground to account for that.
OK, good for him. At least we both have a find to show for the day now, and it's only about an hour into our hunt with high hopes to find more. More wheats surfaced, always a good sign of impending silver to surface. Not too long later he yells over that he's got another keeper. This time it was a silver pendant roughly the size of a half dime with Italian writing on it. I swept over it and noted that it read like a penny at about 176.
Now I'm really putting my nose to the ground and it wasn't long before he once again "disturbed" me with a nickle of some sort. He handed it to me and I could manage to see that it was I think an 1889 or 1898 V-Nickle. About ten minutes later he bugs me yet again with another V-nickle to show off. Alright, I figured, it's my turn to start popping some keepers in the area I was hunting. He went back to his spot and a little while later he pops I think a 1916 Canadian silver dime in mint shape. Wow, nice looking coin. Never have dug one of those.
Later on I'm taking a smoke break sitting on a stump when he catches up to me and pulls two buttons out of his pocket. One was a flat button about the size of a quarter that looked old but nothing in the way of real spectacular. The other was about the size of a nickle and had what I thought was a big "W" on it hiding under all the dirt. Again, looked like junk metal with no shine or anything.
With the day done and him spanking my behind in terms of finds for the day we headed back to the car. For the heck of it he pulls the "W" button out and asks me to look at it again. He mentioned that in better light it looked like an eagle on it and not a "W". Hmmm....I walk over to a small puddle and began to wash the button off. Next thing I know I start seeing the glint of gold. I wash it off some more and for sure it's some kind of gold gilded button! He breaks out a wet wipe and cleans it further. WOW....the gild is in really good shape and now I can see an "I" in the middle of the eagle. I excitedly told him I think he found a Civil Warn Infantry button of some sort! Further cleaning and we can't believe how good of shape the button is in with real good gilding and the back and loop. In the state I live in there wasn't really any Civil war activity so buttons and stuff from that war are pretty rare.
With a little research it does indeed appear to be a civil war button. Somebody says Federal Union Civil War Infantry button. I told him I suspected that the guy who lost it was in that war and probably wore his winter coat to do some hunting in the woods. Well, it gets even more interesting from there. That quarter sized flat button he dug appears to also be a Civil War button from what another friend told him. He has yet to clean it to see if it's got any writing on it. It's a flat button with two rectangle slots and I think a round hole in the center. Never seen one like that.
Now the mystery...I would think it would be rare for a guy hunting to lose two buttons off the same jacket, let alone two buttons that are different types. Not only that, but he also dug a mini ball nearby. Hmmmm....Where did these buttons come from? I can think of a few possibilities. This was near the base of a ridge where we could see broken old bottles and jugs here and there along with some old breaks. Perhaps those buttons were thrown over the side with the other trash? Still, what the heck were they doing up there where they'd pitch two different civil war buttons. Perhaps it was a laundry house? That really doesn't explain the bullet either. Perhaps where we were hunting was a reunion spot where people from the war got together and told stores, drank some drinks, and shot a few guns? Maybe they did mini reenactments of their former glory days?
I don't know why two different civil war buttons would be found in the same general area (within about 50 yards of each other) along with a mini ball. I can tell you this, though, we'll be going back there and digging all the signals above iron out of the area. We had been passing on some "pull tab" signals because it appears this was also a more modern party spot with round and square tabs laying around. While the trash wasn't all that bad we were mainly cherry picking for silver, and in particular when he started smoking me in terms of finds I picked up my pace and was seeking out any silver signals, not really gridding the area like I should have.
Here's a few pics of that button he found. From what little I've been able to dig up on Ebay I suspect now this button is only worth maybe $20 to $40. That's a shame, because in as good of shape as it was I had filled his head with the potential of it being of possible great value. Still, it's a great find. I told him to put it, the other button, and the mini ball into a small display case to hang on his wall.
So I got for the most part skunked in the spot I was working yesterday while he was popping good finds like they were clads. I was mostly happy for him but I admit I resisted the urge to push him over a nice sized drop off. Had he found one more keeper for that day I might have gave in to that urge.
We like to name are spots in the woods for future reference when discussing where to hunt for the day, so he asked me what we should call this particular area. I told him we'd call it knob ridge. He looked at me puzzled for a few seconds and asked why. I said because he's a knob for getting just about all the good finds for the day.
What really cheeses me off is that I had quickly wandered through that spot on my way to a more attractive looking area. When the first wheats showed up I even mentioned that we should back track to that area because I had passed on a few iffy coin signals in my quick attempt to get where I wanted to be. A few of the wheats we dug were giving rather iffy signals for both of us due to the mineral content, so I in effect told him right where we should go back to while I decided to wander where the ground looked more inviting.
Here's a few pics of that button. Great find.
Feeling pretty good about my early head start on the finds compared to my friend we continued to hunt. He head for a small patch of open area while I wandered off to the left a good 40 or 50 yards. Wasn't too long before he yelled something and came running over, as he said that he just dug a half but hadn't cleaned the dirt off yet to see what it was. We he got to me he used his thumb to swipe off the dirt and reveal his find, which turned out to be a 1920 Walking Half in unworn condition. According to the book it's either about a $45 to $85 or so coin depending on just where the grade would fall, but it's somewhere in that range for sure. Wow, nicest walking half I've seen, but he put a small scratch in it. He wasn't expecting it because the signal was broken like a screw cap, and he later found there was iron near it in the ground to account for that.
OK, good for him. At least we both have a find to show for the day now, and it's only about an hour into our hunt with high hopes to find more. More wheats surfaced, always a good sign of impending silver to surface. Not too long later he yells over that he's got another keeper. This time it was a silver pendant roughly the size of a half dime with Italian writing on it. I swept over it and noted that it read like a penny at about 176.
Now I'm really putting my nose to the ground and it wasn't long before he once again "disturbed" me with a nickle of some sort. He handed it to me and I could manage to see that it was I think an 1889 or 1898 V-Nickle. About ten minutes later he bugs me yet again with another V-nickle to show off. Alright, I figured, it's my turn to start popping some keepers in the area I was hunting. He went back to his spot and a little while later he pops I think a 1916 Canadian silver dime in mint shape. Wow, nice looking coin. Never have dug one of those.
Later on I'm taking a smoke break sitting on a stump when he catches up to me and pulls two buttons out of his pocket. One was a flat button about the size of a quarter that looked old but nothing in the way of real spectacular. The other was about the size of a nickle and had what I thought was a big "W" on it hiding under all the dirt. Again, looked like junk metal with no shine or anything.
With the day done and him spanking my behind in terms of finds for the day we headed back to the car. For the heck of it he pulls the "W" button out and asks me to look at it again. He mentioned that in better light it looked like an eagle on it and not a "W". Hmmm....I walk over to a small puddle and began to wash the button off. Next thing I know I start seeing the glint of gold. I wash it off some more and for sure it's some kind of gold gilded button! He breaks out a wet wipe and cleans it further. WOW....the gild is in really good shape and now I can see an "I" in the middle of the eagle. I excitedly told him I think he found a Civil Warn Infantry button of some sort! Further cleaning and we can't believe how good of shape the button is in with real good gilding and the back and loop. In the state I live in there wasn't really any Civil war activity so buttons and stuff from that war are pretty rare.
With a little research it does indeed appear to be a civil war button. Somebody says Federal Union Civil War Infantry button. I told him I suspected that the guy who lost it was in that war and probably wore his winter coat to do some hunting in the woods. Well, it gets even more interesting from there. That quarter sized flat button he dug appears to also be a Civil War button from what another friend told him. He has yet to clean it to see if it's got any writing on it. It's a flat button with two rectangle slots and I think a round hole in the center. Never seen one like that.
Now the mystery...I would think it would be rare for a guy hunting to lose two buttons off the same jacket, let alone two buttons that are different types. Not only that, but he also dug a mini ball nearby. Hmmmm....Where did these buttons come from? I can think of a few possibilities. This was near the base of a ridge where we could see broken old bottles and jugs here and there along with some old breaks. Perhaps those buttons were thrown over the side with the other trash? Still, what the heck were they doing up there where they'd pitch two different civil war buttons. Perhaps it was a laundry house? That really doesn't explain the bullet either. Perhaps where we were hunting was a reunion spot where people from the war got together and told stores, drank some drinks, and shot a few guns? Maybe they did mini reenactments of their former glory days?
I don't know why two different civil war buttons would be found in the same general area (within about 50 yards of each other) along with a mini ball. I can tell you this, though, we'll be going back there and digging all the signals above iron out of the area. We had been passing on some "pull tab" signals because it appears this was also a more modern party spot with round and square tabs laying around. While the trash wasn't all that bad we were mainly cherry picking for silver, and in particular when he started smoking me in terms of finds I picked up my pace and was seeking out any silver signals, not really gridding the area like I should have.
Here's a few pics of that button he found. From what little I've been able to dig up on Ebay I suspect now this button is only worth maybe $20 to $40. That's a shame, because in as good of shape as it was I had filled his head with the potential of it being of possible great value. Still, it's a great find. I told him to put it, the other button, and the mini ball into a small display case to hang on his wall.
So I got for the most part skunked in the spot I was working yesterday while he was popping good finds like they were clads. I was mostly happy for him but I admit I resisted the urge to push him over a nice sized drop off. Had he found one more keeper for that day I might have gave in to that urge.
We like to name are spots in the woods for future reference when discussing where to hunt for the day, so he asked me what we should call this particular area. I told him we'd call it knob ridge. He looked at me puzzled for a few seconds and asked why. I said because he's a knob for getting just about all the good finds for the day. What really cheeses me off is that I had quickly wandered through that spot on my way to a more attractive looking area. When the first wheats showed up I even mentioned that we should back track to that area because I had passed on a few iffy coin signals in my quick attempt to get where I wanted to be. A few of the wheats we dug were giving rather iffy signals for both of us due to the mineral content, so I in effect told him right where we should go back to while I decided to wander where the ground looked more inviting.
Here's a few pics of that button. Great find.
