Buttons, A Little Silver, And A Cannon?

[F350Platinum]

What a day! Ended up in the low 70s with light wind, perfect metal detecting day. There is a small field near the end of my road and across the highway that I hadn't searched, it's a small part of the thousand or so acres that one of my landowners has. It's a totally non-descript field, nothing there.

Some of the other fields in this property have nothing in them so I didn't expect much. Walked around the perimeter looking for those shade Reales and coins, nothing but buckshot, bullets and shotgun shells.

Went by this hedgerow, that building is across the highway. I do not have permission to that property but I'm working on it.

That's when things got interesting, I kept getting signals from 12 to 25, and dug all these relics:

Some kind of pull knob, a clamp, a small piece of silver with hallmarks, a heavy copper funnel shaped thing, a long copper pin with a long shaft, a small brass toy cannon, some sort of cover plate, a really heavy cast knob with a turned circle (going to test it for silver, it's black), a tombac plate that was broken, a buckle and a small bit of shoe buckle.

The cannon has a fuse hole, you can probably put a firecracker in it. The silver piece looks to be flatware.

Hope I can find the rest of it.

I also found some of the best buttons I've found in a long time:

Huge dandy button with flowers and a beehive, no back marks:

Another highly decorated convex button with "Standard Gilt" on the back:

Got a few tiny buttons, one may be a Tombac with a shank. Large button with a square hole.

The finds of the day beside the cannon were these two, I believe both are Virginia militia buttons. One definitely is, a two piece from the 1860s:

It says "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (thus to tyrants). Some of the gold plate is still on it.

the other is convex but looks like it also has the symbol of Virginia. I dug it in about 6 inches of clay, it was really hard to get to, and the bronze disease is heavy. It would be older than the Civil war era.

Trash wasn't all that bad for 8 hours of digging. Found some "house parts" that told me there was a building there.

Also dug a 1999 clad quarter next to the truck!

[JCR]

That all makes for a good day. Well done.

[F350Platinum]

10 minutes ago, JCR said:

That all makes for a good day. Well done.

Thanks! Odd that even though this peninsula is Robert E. Lee's birthplace, civil war relics are few. I can count on one hand how many I've found.

[rvpopeye]

Massive hunt ! 

Some interesting stuff. 

The mini canon could be Templar...🤔   

[deathray]

Good stuff man! Congrats on the Virginia button!

[Cal_Cobra]

Love the one piece buttons!! 

That little cannon is likely a functional toy cannon.  The wheels were probably metal and may still be there some place, but the cannon carriage was likely made from wood. 

[Valens Legacy]

Great hunt with a lot of history recovered, do you have any idea what size shell the canon would take as it would be functional if it was cleaned up.

Good luck on your next outing and try to find a complete tank to guard your house.

[F350Platinum]

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great hunt with a lot of history recovered, do you have any idea what size shell the canon would take as it would be functional if it was cleaned up.

Good luck on your next outing and try to find a complete tank to guard your house.

About all you can fit in the barrel is a standard firecracker. It's cast so that the fuse would slide out the top hole.

It could be as old as the mid 1800s.

[NCtoad]

Those buttons are fantastic!   I can see you pulling an old, old silver out of there.  

[F350Platinum]

34 minutes ago, NCtoad said:

Those buttons are fantastic!   I can see you pulling an old, old silver out of there.  

I'd love to, believe me. No IDs over 25, the penny range. Even the silver flatware piece was 16-18, maybe a 21 in there. Everything I found except for the two buttons I dug in the clay was in about a 60 foot square.