a button day !!
- Thread starter del
- Start date
Digger_O'Dell
New member
Sweet-can't wait to see the rest of the pics and of them cleaned up-looks like you hit the jackpot! Congrats!
Trooper Bri
New member
Congrats Dan! A fantastic way to get the Autumn detecting season started!
OxShoeDrew
Administrator
A GW????!!!! :shocked05:AWESOME!!!! :yahoo::envious::happy:
del
Administrator
thank you DOD
it was great day for both of us Brian , how out making with your finds ??
thanks skamaniac
Thanks Drew , i just started cleaning the button and it looks to have some very sharp details .
ill keep you updated to my progress
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Cheap Thrills
Active member
Congratulations Dan !!! What a wonderful find .I didn't even know what a GW button was until I joined this forum . Heck we barely find Silver Washington Quarters around my neck of the woods anymore .It's really great to see that old stuff .The oldest thing I have found around here in 23 years of detecting is a 1814 Mexican half Real . Thanks for posting that baby so we can share your excitement .:congrats:
Trooper Bri
New member
Looking good Dan!
I'm doing OK. The Half Penny Token cleaned up pretty good. The Braided cleaned up pretty good too. The Draped bust didn't hold up as well. I'll get some pics up soon.
I'm doing OK. The Half Penny Token cleaned up pretty good. The Braided cleaned up pretty good too. The Draped bust didn't hold up as well. I'll get some pics up soon.
RIdirtdigger
New member
AWESOME GW! I'm still waiting for my first but I'm sure it will come some day 
. Great find!
. Great find!
del
Administrator
Thanks for commenting "CT" , I bet that 1814 real made your year huh??
I bet the front of the draped bust came out roughest , i figured it would "fair" the worst being it the oldest of the spill and having the most wear. glad the others are showing promise , can't wait for the pictures.
well here is another "progress" picture
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OxShoeDrew
Administrator
Oh My GAWSH!! Is the shank on it?
del
Administrator
No Drew , the button's shank or loop looks to have broken off long ago .
well here is the cleaned up button , i was pleasantly surprised at seeing silver gilt or "wash" still present on parts of the button after 226 years .
thanks for reading !
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OxShoeDrew
Administrator
I think that is a marvelous find and cleaning job! Do you have any idea how many were made and distributed?
Cheap Thrills
Active member
Lodge Scent
Active member
Holy smokes! That's a beauty Dan!! Huge congrats !:congrats:
MangoAve
New member
Nice one Dan. Good to see it has some silver gilt on it. So far I have only liked the posts about this but haven't commented yet. I do wonder why many of these don't show up often. Seeing as you said your last one was 2008. Rang up like a button? I'd just figure there was a lot of support for him back in the day, and cherry picked sites these would be lower VDI targets and possibly skipped over. Sure, there weren't many home sites in the 1790s when he was president and not everyone supported him, but I am sure quite a few did. Hoping I can get a site with one of those bad boys sometime. I'm just grateful to be holding my own lately.... and excluding the Nova...was on my own sites.
BTV Digger
New member
Very nice Dan and congratulations. You must have had a great time, especially with that find. Do you clean your buttons in similar fashion to your copper coins (i.e. with H2O2), or with another method? I imagine relative value and/or scarcity may play a role in how you go about it.
John
John
del
Administrator
Drew , All I know is that agents or loyal volunteers of Washington had the master dies for these buttons and went just ahead of him (while he was touring for his campaign) and had a set number of buttons commissioned in the towns he was planning on stopping in or to travel by , they sold these buttons (each agent had a couple of die varieties ) to raise money for the campaign and then also used that money for his inauguration parade. There is much debate about how much these button cost but i've heard stories that they were anywhere from a days worth of wage to a months worth of wagees just for one button. They must of made thousands and thousands of these buttons though , despite Dave and Todd having found most of them
there are a few left to find . :rofl::lol: if I could photoshop a tiara on it I would CT :rofl:
Thanks Jeff , i expect to see you with one pretty soon !
These large buttons can (depending on their angle in the ground) ring almost as high as a coin or low as a shotgun shell . This particular one was ext to a large rock and sitting right next to a large iron lantern top (which what i heard first and sounded decent but a bit ratty ) i new there was iron . so i dug the lantern top out and ran the coil over the area again and then heard the nice high almost coin like tone , I was just glad i didn't hit it with the shovel because of te tight area between the rock and a small pine tree sapling . thanks Jim
Yes John , great care goes into a quality find like this . once i saw how the dirt was coming off on the dried out spots I just placed it under my flood lamp to speed up the drying . I'm just fortunate the crusty layer was easy to flake off like it did John , if i can remove the dirt and layer of verdigris without using chemicals i'll do it . so i removed all the crust very easily with a toothpick then gave it a very soft tooth brushing and then put the ren wax onto it . thanks sir !