Woods silver and buttons

off the iron

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Feb 27, 2014
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Middlesex County MA
Been hitting lots of wooded areas the last few weeks. It's good because of the shade but the roots and uneven terrain make it a challenge. Not many finds in terms of old coins but I've been plugging along with buttons and other various relics.

Picked out a 1911 Barber dime yesterday in the woods of a large park near me.

Hope you all finding good stuff.
 

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To be honest I'd rather dig any one of those buttons than "most" silver coins.
Those are some quality digs, Congrats!
What TCosbyjr said about the bees is a good point too, I disturbed a nest last year, I was only stung once but it was over an hour and a half before I dared try to retrieve my gear.
 
Be careful with ticks in summer,Lyme and other bad stuff they carry can ruin your life.Spray your clothes with Permathrin and bare skin with Deet.
 
To be honest I'd rather dig any one of those buttons than "most" silver coins.
Those are some quality digs, Congrats!

Are you a subscriber to Western & Eastern Treasures? In the March 2020 issue a article title "Mining Buttons", had lots of information and eye candy.

Companies in the 1800s called shoddy mills would process old clothes to reprocess the wool. Of course buttons, buckles, etc had to be removed and often litter the surrounding area. I took a small screenshot of part of the article to show it, the top left image is of piles of buttons at the surface sitting.

Interestingly in the early days when it was done by hand (instead of chemicals later on) they would sell off the waste scraps that included buttons mixed in with the cloth/wool and sold to farmers for fertilizer for their fields. I guess some fields are loaded with buttons to this day from that too.

Paper mills did the same at one point with cotton too, but no luck with either in my area for buttons. Perhaps you might get lucky and find one around your area.

What TCosbyjr said about the bees is a good point too, I disturbed a nest last year, I was only stung once but it was over an hour and a half before I dared try to retrieve my gear.

Glad to hear besides the wasted time you escaped pretty much unscathed. Nothing quite like being loaded with detecting gear and having to escape.
 

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Is that a holed coin I see ? And a naval button ?

The holed circled item I believe is some kind of medallion, it’s very thin. No writing on it that I can see.

The button looks very similar to 1850’s Marines buttons I’ve seen on google. I’d guess it’s civilian but who knows.
 
Nice hunting man, between the heat and the bugs, hunting has just plain sucked recently :laughing: congrats on the barber and cool relics!
 
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