The beginning of June was a special one when HEAVYMETALNUT (Dave) joined up With Donnie , Jim Atkiv and I for what seemed to be a typical hunt at an old cellar site that I was sure a lot of people had already been to . Dave Wise is an old friend whom I have a lot of respect for as a person and hobbyist , I really enjoy his company when we do get together .The site was a large cellar with lots of room to explore but was very overgrown with ferns as many are this time of year , swinging was tough in most areas and from the lack of targets very hard hit already . My only find from hours of swinging was a lone button and not much was found from the rest of the guys either , four coils covering this much ground after a few hours should of produced more in my experience. So as Jim was discussing a plan for other places to go nearby I mentioned that I wanted to check out a possible site just down the old road a little farther , we gathered up our packs and gear and took a very short walk down the road and came to a an area that looked like someone stacked stone just off the path . As I got closer I could tell it was really a small chimney pile , outline of a cabin with a small cellar hole on the opposite side being right off the road I didn't have a lot of hope it still had much to offer but told the guys this is it , lets give it a go !
Donnie , wasn't there for ten minutes before he had a dandy button , that's a good sign I said to myself . Dave got a King George half penny a few minutes after that up on a small knoll behind the site and then Jim found a copper himself ( that turned out to be a Connecticut state copper) just off the road near the cellar hole , all this within about a half hour from arriving at the site . A bit later when I was closer , I asked Donnie was there anything on his dandy and he said he wasn't sure and asked if I wanted to look at it , me being a bit behind in the finds department to everyone , I told him later and continued searching . A few minutes later Dave took a look at it and told Donnie "you found a GW button !" Then he said no you didn't I was just kidding , then told him it was , only to say it wasn't ! it was quite entertaining to watch as I walked over to them and then Dave handed it to me as I asked for it and I said " is it" to which he nodded yes while grinning . Donnie like a little kid asks me "what is it " " is it a GW " and I said " yeah it is the eagle GW , congrats buddy " . Donnie's who demeanor went from sadly confused to gleefully cheerful like a small child .I wish we had that on video
it was easy to see this one had better detail than the first one but it also had two small square nail holes on either side of the eagle , still a beautiful button and very rare to find more than one at a site! Dave at this time moved onto the other side of the cellar hole from Donnie and worked a small spot also in the iron and inside the house footprint , pulling a few pieces of iron out that his machine hit on. He wasn't there long and he pulled out a fugio penny , a Vermont state copper and got himself a GW eagle button
! I was amazed that this little site on a main trail was producing the most GW buttons than any other site I've been too
. I was very happy for everyone up to that point , all I had was a tombac button from this site and I seriously thought I was going to be the "assist man" in this scenario . "Assist man" = I find the site but everyone else reaps the rewards
I can honestly say that has happened before , mean while everyone one is telling me I need to get on the board !
Its deep , on a hillside but also a bit inconsistent . I just can't get it to sound like a coin (its close ) and I would never in a million years walk away from a target like that but I was thinking maybe something with iron and is the reason I didn't tell anyone I had a good target. It was deep next to a small pile of stone and I actually had to pry some large rocks to get at it . I was a bit surprise to see it was a copper coin and thought maybe all the rocks had distorted the tones with their minerals . I yelled out to the group "Hey I finally got a copper"
, it was a King George III Hibernia ! after about this time everyone was pleased to hear that I was finally "on the board"
. I stood up and re-swung over the hole and this time I get a perfect coin tone
With them all around I stood up and swung over the hole and heard yet another perfect coin tone , I think it was Dave who asked "don't tell me there is another one in there" , to which I smiled and nodded !
The excitement was raised more for every coin and the again videoed me pulling a thin copper this time a King George III (later found out this was a 1775 Machin Mill counterfeit copper)
. That's how quick you go from having a lousy day of finding nothing to a great day , that one hole can change your whole day an attitude !
The next hour or so I picked up a couple of small buttons and while these guys staked out their areas of the cellar or took turns hammering the house site as Donnie had found another GW button although this one was broken in half so I moved across the road and almost immediately got a good sounding target . Guessing it might be more modern junk being alongside the dirt road I dug it anyways and it turned out to be a large thick piece of pewter , couldn't tell what it went to but I knew it was old as the site and to me that was a good indicator to stay put . A few feet away I get a very deep sounding shotgun shell kind of target , I open the hole up and re-swing and now its a very nice tone and about 5 inches down I pull up a dandy button and I shouted to the guys " I got a dandy button " Dave was the first to respond back "does it have an eagle on it " ? By that time I had turned it around to look at the front and I nodded "yes in fact it does …. GW eagle"!!He must of thought I was fooling with him this time as he was the first to run over and take a look
This made 4 and a half eagle buttons at one site
I've been very fortunate to have found two other Washington inaugural buttons both of them are the GW oval types and I've been wanting the eagle type for many years now So I was very happy to have this one and to share my joy and excitement with the friends on this particular hunt .
Thanks for reading this long winded tale .
Dan
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I really enjoyed your play by play and all the great pictures . 
Originally Posted by Cheap Thrills
The excitement and the adrenaline in the air was so palpable! What really made the day for me was when you found your Eagle. I had held your other two GW's, the Ovals, in my hands and knew how much you wanted an Eagle to go with them. I was probably more happy than you when you found your Eagle. That made my day! Thank you Danny! Thank you!
