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BEST HUNT EVER! Unique 56th Regimental War of 1812 Button, Gold, Lots of Silver!!!
Had my best hunt ever with Luke (PACIVILWARLUKE) yesterday. Great finds + great company made it an awesome time! Best hobby ever! Thanks so much Luke for coming down!
He decides to come down to do our own little "DIV" adventure. He came over Friday and he slept here and then we woke up at 5:30 to do some digging. We got to the site at 7 where I found 6 eagle buttons, Springfield bayonet scabbard tip, and some bullets. We didn't get much unfortunately. Not even one bullet after getting ten last time I was there. What a bummer. I got a back to an eagle button, two musket balls, and a pistol ball. I dug a barber quarter at the very last signal at that place, 1898. We then went door knocking around that area. We got a "no", then a "yes"... But they said we were "wasting our time" and "we weren't gonna find anything", we found a wheat penny, a "M" initial ring, and some melted lead. Then he had to leave 5 minutes after I got there and said "you guys can't be here when I'm gone" so we just left. Didn't like that guy too much. We went to another Late-Victorian style house along the main road and got a "yes" again. We had ourselves a nice spot as we kept pulling wheat cents and melted lead. We didn't pull any full three ringers from here but Lucas got a fired bullet. My first signal was a buffalo, 1936. We swung around for a little while and Luke calls me over and said he's got an Indian. It was a 1904. I get a silver quarter, 1941 and then a Merc, 1917. Luke then calls me over again and says he has a beautiful cufflink. Boy he was right, I love late 1800s-early 1900s jewelry. It seems it was common for it to be intricate and ornate. I went on a little roll after that and found a few more wheat cents and then I get a choppy nickel signal and I thought I saw another beaver tail entangled in the roots. I yank it out and there lay a gold ring in my hand entangled in the grass roots. I wiped off the dirt and clearly saw a "10K" and it has an Onyx Stone. Probably early 1900s as well. That got the heart pumping. I scan it over his AT PRO coil and it was a scratchy 41, crazy. I then dig a 1950 Rosie. That's 4 silver coins for me already and it wasn't even noon yet. Things just got better after that. We stopped for lunch and asked at a place which we thought there would be a nice sized skirmish. The owner must've been 95 years old, her grandparents were actually in the civil war. Wow.... she taught us a great deal of history. Since her son also metal detected she said no at first, but that quickly turned into a yes after she realized how much we care about the history. We get to swinging and we were wondering why we weren't getting any solid signals. After a while it came to us, the ground was very hot and made both of our detectors very unstable. We quickly get out if there, and Luke gets a choppy signal and tells me to look at something he just dug. He says he might have an artillery fuse. Turned out to be a fired Hotchkiss that exploded, leaving only the fuse to be found. I'm so glad he found the artillery fuse fragment, since it's been on his bucket list (and mine!) for a while and he really wanted to find a piece of civil war history. I also dug the smallest sterling baby ring there. Anyway, we move on to a site which was... Intimidating. Luke pulled over and we stopped to ask the gentleman on his mower for permission. Since the place was so beautiful and well kept up, we were sure he was going to say no. It ended up he said "yes", and we parked and began swinging. I immediately got a low tone at 2", expecting trash, I dug a shallow plug and popped a worn out V nickel, 1906. Because of how worn it was, I was really hoping to see the big fat 5 with stars. Not five minutes later, I actually dug a shield nickel! Life was good! After a few minutes , Luke finally got a decent signal in a different part of the yard. Luke called "Copper!" and proceeded to wipe off a braided hair from 1846. Little did I know what I'd pull next. I first get a pewter spoon handle then a beautiful pewter flower button which dates to around 1800. I walk into an area of the yard Luke stood in earlier to get a picture of the site. I get a zinc penny signal at 2" and I saw a silver guilted button in my plug. I wiped it off quick and my eyes bulge out from my sockets. "Is this a 56th regimental button?" And he snatched it from my hand and almost puked. He yelled "Do you even know what this ishttp://tnet.forumfoundry.com/forums/...milies/huh.gif!!!" "Do you know what you just dughttp://tnet.forumfoundry.com/forums/...milies/huh.gif!!!" I said "No dude tell me!" "It's a 56th regimental officers button from the war of 1812!!!" Wow!!!! I couldn't believe I unearthed that... I'm so glad about its condition too. It's in pretty much perfect shape. Perfect shank and 100% guilt! Apparently these buttons were issued to soldiers during the war of 1812 without ANY engraving in the shield. This soldier was easily an Officer and could've possibly been a Luitenant or a higher rank. The button is true personal piece of history. The button was NEVER MEANT to be engraved in the shield, the button was issued without the engravings so the soldier had to have someone engrave that 56 into the shield of that button or he did it himself. What a piece of history! Wow! I later learned the button could be the only one ever dug or existing at all. What a special find and I'm so priveledged to have found it! It blows my mind! Talking about value, one WITHOUT a number in the shield, corroded, without any guilt, and pretty beat up without a shank is worth $300... this one is probably worth a whole lot more. I won't be able to get over it, ever, because it's such an awesome find. I also was asked by William Liegh if he could publish my button in his newest button book. Totally awesome. I'm researching the exact person who wore this as well. Hopefully I have some luck. I wasn't able to concentrate after that really, but I got a faint penny signal... I thought it was probably going to be a wheatie... but I dug my plug and saw a thin silver disk on the bottom of the hole. I called Luke over again and for a minute we were contemplating on what it was gonna be... "Probably a barber, maybe a seated?" I quickly wipe the dirt off with my thumb and the classic eagle flashes back at me. Capped bust dime! My first one of those... what an amazing day!!!!! Unfortunately the targets seemed to disappear after that, with only an 1876 Indian head and another flat button as our final digs for that site for that day. We think the site was hit before, but it was weird how sudden it was. We left that site and decided to do some more door knocking. It got dark fast and we weren't haven't any luck. We made a pit stop at my "Halbach site" for 5 minutes and he actually dug a flat button in an area I thought was completely trashed! I was impressed. It was dark now and we ate dinner at an IHOP that night. We did some research on the 56th regiment. It turns out they were formed out of Loudon County... Which is where I dug it! Freaking awesome! We will be able to attribute this button to a specific person which makes it even better! The next day we woke up early and headed back to the site I dug the 56th. We figured because our batteries were low and we were giddy about the button, the site wasn't covered thoroughly. We were surprised by the frost. Luke didn't have much luck, but I ended up finding a skeleton key at the front walkway. I start doing a grid search while Luke gets ancy and wanted to move on. I kept pulling targets out in the last few minutes we were there. First an 1879 Indian shows up, then a lovely 1918 Merc, then on the way back to the car, I get a Civil War Staff Officers coat button. 75% guilt in this bad boy! We were going to door knock and hopefully get permission, but we got rejected... three out of three sites! All because they or their family members detect also. Wow. Since we felt discouraged, we went to another old site of mine and we each popped a colonial button and a harmonica reed before he had to go back home to PA. We will be detecting again very soon!!!!!! Thanks for looking guys and HH!!!!
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