My eldest son and I went back up to the cottage to close it up for the winter this past weekend and we did some detecting too. We visited the Indian camp site and it looks like we have found most of the copper that was there...very quiet there this time. We only found a handful of copper fragments. I am sure there are more tools there but they were hiding from us this time.
We also detected a couple other nearby sites and did quite well. We found 21 buttons...13 are military, 5 dandy and the rest are plain.
The button below is probably my favorite US button from the trip. It is a cuff 1st Regiment and dates prior to 1812. I think 1808-1812 or something like that.
But below is a button I have never found before. It is a British 10th Royal Veteran Battalions button. This is only the 2nd British button I have ever found. Per Wikipedia "Royal Veteran Battalions were British Arm units of the early nineteenth century that were made up of men no longer fit for front line service." So they were the Hogan's Heroes of the early 1800's.
Below is a pic of an iron trigger guard that I found. It was 200 yards from the barrel I found a few weeks ago so I doubt they go together. I will put it through electrolysis next year since my mom does all of that up at the cottage. My son found the cannon grape shot. I guess that it what that iron ball is. I found one a few weeks ago.
Perhaps my favorite find is a silver ring. It was very tarnished but cleaned up nicely. It is very fragile and ready to fall apart. The intricate hand design work on it is very cool and it is also on the band. I would guess this is probably early 1800's or maybe 1700's. I found it in the same area as the knife blades from a few weeks ago. I am also guessing that this is not sterling silver but maybe only 50%. I say this because it had a fair amount of green on it from the copper content. It reminds of the hammered coins that DaddyDigger finds that are only 50% or less silver and they do not look silver at all until he cleans them up and then … BAM! he has a new avatar! I wish I had taken a pic of it in the dirt but I did not think it was silver.
Here are some silver trade era items from my Uncle's yard and from the "Saw Pit" site.
Everything:
Last night I decided to lightly clean the British Royal Coat of Arms with some baking soda and a light rub. I am leaving it alone now that it looks this good. This morning I noticed that there is some gold guilt or paint on it still....on the back end of the lion.
Now that the cottage is officially closed up I will not be able to go back until next spring. I still can't believe all of the crazy things that we found up there this year! I know that I am very spoiled! My mom got a message from one of our permissions just the other day stating that he has a few spots of "interest" on their property that they want to show us next year. I can't wait!
Thanks for looking!
Jared
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