So, two weeks ago when we found that we were on an untouched site, Dan made a prediction a couple hours into the hunt. With all the dandy buttons popping, there had to be a George Washington Inaugural button there.
He was right! A few hours into it, boom! It was a free-for-all on the last hunt, and this trip we had to settle down and be more methodical. It was within 10ft of the main cabin site, and we both had been swinging around it. I've cleaned it up as much as I dare for now, and the shank is intact. Alberts lists it as a WI 12b (54 marks on the border). It also gets an R5 rarity, 6-10 examples. I'm stunned to have managed a find like this in only two years of detecting.
For the rest of the day it was back to buttons, buttons, buttons. I managed 30 in total including a flaky pewter one not shown. Not much in the fancy department this time around. Almost all were plain, some with back marks. My few non-button finds included a pewter musket ball, a few iron tack buckles, and some sort of thin brass or copper hinge half.
Not long before it really slowed down for us, I had been beating up the cabin site pulling buttons out of the nails. I started working a jumpy tone, and upon clearing out a big ol' square nail, was greeted with a nice upper 70's VDI and sweet tone. My 2'nd Nova Constellatio! Dan beat me to it and ID'd it as a Crosby 1-B with the blunt rays. Date is 1785.
The bugs were unreal yesterday. We were swarmed the second we got out of the Jeep, and they didn't let up for 10 hours. I had to cover up completely, and wore a head net because they were chewing me alive. A beautiful day to be digging once the sun came out and it dried up. Thanks for a fun day as usual Dan, it's one I won't forget any time soon!
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