Back in Wisconsin. Short hunt, cool finds!

[Digger_O'Dell]

Hi all!
Got back home yesterday and did a little catching up on the yardwork. Grass as high as the hood of the lawn tractor!
Anyway, decided that I only had one more day off for the foreseeable future, I decided to get in one more hunt for a few hours. The area I went had been pounded for ages by ff43, so obviously nothing easy left to be found. I tried the GPX for the first 2 hours, but got tired of digging 18 inches through big roots and rocks for a piece of copper wire.
So I switched back to the CTX and worked a really trashy area with tons of iron and pull tabs. First repeatable signal- a 12-32ish, I pulled up a State of Wisconsin ring from about 7 inches. Junker ring, but I've never seen one like it, nor can I find one by googling.
Next signal about 20 minutes later was real sketchy amid the iron. I dug down and first got a small partial rusty bottle cap. Rechecked the hole and ended up with 2 pieces of a small bracelet or necklace.
About a half hour later I was about to call it quits for the day, I got a bouncy but repeatable 12-34ish signal st 6 inches. I dug down and pulled my first eagle button! Yeah I did the happy dance while nobody was looking! But after a bit more cleaning, I see it has a steel back. Maybe some of you button guys can give me some info on this? It looks perfectly like a CW general service button, but I can only find photos of the brass Scoville backs. There were some mentions of other makers and some supposedly had steel of tin backs. Don't know if it's true or not, so any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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[Cheap Thrills]

Welcome back ! Congrats on pulling some finds from the junk infested area .

 

[aloldstuff]

I'll bet your neighbors thought you were letting your grass go to seed...:lol:.

Welcome home and about that button, I'm not sure cause of that iron back??

 

[Digger_O'Dell]

Here is a better pic of the button with more detail. Hope this helps!

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[BTV Digger]

Very nice finds! The button is most definitely of the period 1854-1902, and given the iron back I’d guess it’s from later in that period. I also don’t show your exact button in my Alberts book. The wings are more horizontal as opposed to the slightly upturned classic look, so likely one of the several other varieties. Dan/others may know more.

 

[Digger_O'Dell]

Very nice finds! The button is most definitely of the period 1854-1902, and given the iron back I’d guess it’s from later in that period. I also don’t show your exact button in my Alberts book. The wings are more horizontal as opposed to the slightly upturned classic look, so likely one of the several other varieties. Dan/others may know more.

Thanks much for the info. I was pretty sure once I cleaned the dirt off and saw the steel back it was not CW, but much later despite the old style eyelet on back instead of the later holesd dimple style. Oh well, I was happy for a moment anyway-almost had that bucket lister.

 

[Ill Digger]

Welcome back Chris!
Its a fun place to hunt! Many good finds have come from there,, and I'd be willing to bet that there's even more.
I dig the Wisconsin State ring! Cool find
Congrats!

 

[Donnie B]

Your button is commonly referred to as an Indian Wars button. I think most people think of these as post Civil War. It's still a wonderful find and I have only found two or three of them in 24 years of detecting. The interesting part is that the ones I found were on a Civil War site that I dug for 10 years. My only guess is that there was a camp on the site during the "Reconstruction" period after the war and the buttons were lost at that time.

 

[Donnie B]

By the way, I see a little gilt on your button. I cleaned this one with CLR and brought out the gilt. I would ask Danny (Del) for his advice on whether to try it on your button, or not.

 

[Digger_O'Dell]

Your button is commonly referred to as an Indian Wars button. I think most people think of these as post Civil War. It's still a wonderful find and I have only found two or three of them in 24 years of detecting. The interesting part is that the ones I found were on a Civil War site that I dug for 10 years. My only guess is that there was a camp on the site during the "Reconstruction" period after the war and the buttons were lost at that time.

By golly, you hit that one on the nose! A quick search of Indian wars buttons found a few examples of my "tinback" button and dates it around 1870 to 1880ish. Heres a link to one site:
http://www.caldwellandcompany.net/buttons.html

 

[Donnie B]

Glad that I could be of help. Very nice button.