Recent Restorations

The restoration work has been going on at a steady pace but I've not posted recent work mostly because I've failed to take the pre-restoration pictures that make for a good before and after posting. I often find myself inspecting and assessing the relics then before I know it I'm several steps into the work having neglected to take the pictures that document the original condition. I just have to get better at that. Below are examples of this.

The 6th NC plate only required the re-attachment of the hooks and solder simultation. Straightforward work for an incredible relic. Note the remnants of black enamel paint on the buckle's back. This also fills the face in the negative relief areas.

The Texas buckle was broken in several pieces and had been fixed by someone else but whoever did the work was sloppy. They left shiny glue globs showing all over the relic. The reason the star was cut from the plate was because the waist belt plate became unserviceable to the soldier, having lost the attachment hooks. Confederates often utilized what they could from the plates and in this case the star probably became a hat piece. As much as I was tempted to deconstruct the relic and rebuild, I was asked only to remove the epoxy glue and touch up to match the buckle's patina.

The Texas star hat piece (never part of a plate) was missing the lower right arm as you view it front side and lower left when viewing the back (soldered side). I fabricated the missing arm from an excavated piece of period jewelry that the owner provided. You can see that the star was probably folded up badly when originally recovered. If you can imagine it, those bends and creases were even more ugly and prominent prior to the work I performed.

As-Dug North Carolina Plate 

After hooks attached

Solder-filled back

Front of plate showing breaks

Solder-filled stamped star

Solder-filled back

Detail showing loop attachment

1861 Seated Liberty Half Dollar Recovery

I've been swinging a metal detector for over 40 years now, 43 to be exact. I still get surprised at how relics can seem to "hide" for years in a spot I've hit hard. Yesterday, I found this beautiful coin right out in the open where I've used several machines. Whether the freeze and thaw of this particularly harsh winter of 2014 changed its ground orientation and signal or whether the pulse detector technology or just plain luck accounts for the find I just don't know. What I can say is that the signal sounded good on a day when I was taking it slow in a signal-rich (junky)area. It was detected at about 5" depth.

While not a particularly rare coin, for me it's an exceptional recovery and adds to the variety of finds made in this 1861 union encampment. The condition suggests that it was lost before circulating a full year. My guess is that it was lost in December of 1861 with the troops hunkering down in their winter quarters. Perhaps it was dropped into the mud of a well-trampled trail or silently into a fresh blanket of snow. The union soldier who lost it, possibly a Pennsylvanian or Vermonter, certainly could not have imagined how his enlistment would look as the war escalated nor how costly it would be, pocketfull of silvers like this or not.

Sometimes Gilted Sometimes Not: Two Virginia Buttons

Below are two examples of a pre-war manufactured Virginia button produced by Benedict & Burnham of Waterbury Connecticut (circa 1834-1843). Both two-piece buttons were silver-plated and manufactured using thick, flat spun backs. Interestingly, these backs, when separated from the button, look exactly like the "coin" type flat buttons so often recovered from early sites with the exception of a groove along the outer edge into which the button's face edge is pressure fitted. Both of these button backs were completely detached, loose inside the buttons. I was able to carefully turn and run the backs' grooved edges into the face rim for a snug and flush re-fitting.

Why the one button has retained so much silver and the other hardly any has to do with the amount of wear, timeframe of loss, and the soil conditions of its 150 plus years of entombment. Both were recovered in the Richmond area. This B&B variety of the Virginia state seal button is considered rare and can be referenced in Albert's book as the VA8 and in Tice's reference as the VA 2181A.

12 Pound Boreman

At around 11am on the second day of the Diggin' in Virginia organized relic hunt held in Culpeper Virginia on March 22nd-24th, I came across a wide and faint signal atop the bluff along rt 29. This high position was a redoubt that saw over 1100 shells fly during the action there in 1863. Here is the 12lb. Boreman cannon ball that was 22" down below the gravel and red clay. More pics to be added soon.

Volunteer Maine Militia Box Plate

This damaged Volunteer Maine Militia box plate was calling my name every time I viewed it on Plez Bagby's Virginia Relics web site. As you can see, it had been folded in half which resulted in a complete split. It may have been done by a soldier, perhaps a confederate making use of the solder fill to make field-molded bullets or perhaps this plate simply took a direct center hit from disc or plow.

I know that some purists would say leave it untouched as a two-piece. My approach or stance falls somewhere in-between purist and revisionist. For this relic I felt that a re-connect was appropriate, to have the relic displayed more complete, along with before-repair pictures.



The repair and matching required several sessions at the workbench and perhaps a total of 6hrs involving spot layering of differing dust hues after the initial edge angle matching and rejoin. I could have quickly re-patinized (painted) the entire face and re-filled the back with a solder mix, totally compromising originality but that approach, while actually minimizing the time it takes to do the restoration, usually results in a very different relic than the one dug. While I've done that kind of work, I do not get nearly the same amount of satisfaction from it. I think it looks good now but I may choose to expose more base metal and verdigris. I often set relic work aside and revisit a project with "new" eyes usually seeing something that requires tweaking. Note how robust the iron loops are and larger than what you find installed on the US box plates. I've done little to them aside from rust removal. They are heavy gauge and sturdy. You have to love these Maine plates!

Root & Rock Medicine with a dose of Vitamin B

Another hut excavation yields rocks and a few nice artifacts.


Here, my first glass of the hut becomes visible. Using my dig knife vs. the shovel insures that any glass I come across doesn't get the hatchet job. Using the knife affords one to feel when the blade crosses the smooth surface of glass. A very different sensation than even smooth rock. This bottle was directly under a couple of tightly wedged rocks and a root to boot.

This tiny medicinal came from the 9 o'clock location as you look down into the hole and hidden in the undercut. As you can see, some very large rocks have already come out.

Digging in the same direction as the location of the bottle led to the eventual recovery of the second part of the doctor's prescription. A perfect Company letter B, a weak signal that I scraped out well after sundown.

Probing for the Deep Relics

After probing out some large rocks at depth I'm encouraging my sister on her second dig with me to continue carefully in case she comes across a bottle.  At this point she has recovered a .58 minie, some buck balls and random pieces of glass.  

My turn in the hole and I've uncovered a circular iron object that has us guessing. 

 It is so rusted that it cannot be removed intact and it doesn't register as metal on the pinpointer.  It appears to be a rusted out bucket as further work reveals sides going down another 10" or so.

Directly underneath the object was this little gem.  Protected from the many rocks for 150 years.  Held here by my sister Debbie.

12-sided ink cleaned.  The cloudy white occlusions are actually glass imperfections from the blowing process.

Pontil mark 

Half Dime recovered a week before a few feet away from this excavation.  The third 1861 found in the small search area.  Possibly a coin spill.  Hope there's more to come.

 6/24/12 Spanish Silver Recovery

 Cut pistareen recovered at 2.5 ft 

Short Video of recovery

"S" for Seville

Shown placed with others from site

Below is a link to an absolutely fantastic article
on Spanish silver and specifically, on the
 origin and history of the pistareen in the
American colonies.

Pistareen

Recoveries from Tavern Site

Finds from Digging in Virginia XXl, Culpeper Virginia: March 19-21

D Evans, Attleboro backmarked Cavalry coat button from hut. Condition the result of laying in the ash layer beside the fire box.Other finds from the hut were percussion caps, six colt pistol bullets and the arrow hooks below.

 2 two-way candlestick holders, one on right cleaned by electrolysis

Silver mechanical pencil tip, gun tool and arrow hook

"frog" from US buckle found in Cavalry hut site

Lockplate

Before

After

Drummer Buckle

Before

After

SNY Buckle

Before

 

After

US Buckle Repair

Before

After