Probing:Soda Bottle

Using the probe, I located yet another soldier's hut and fire pit at depth but was only able to recover the broken remains of some small medicine bottles and this Philadelphia soda shown reconstructed along with an unbroken example (internet file). The manufacturer, E.Roussel, was the first to go to this style of bottle in order to distinguish his product from competitors.

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1806 Large Cent Recovery

Found this nicely detailed large cent today. Condition is excellent save for the period scratches across liberty's face. She was four feet down at the deepest level of a federal-era cellar hole and exactly what I had hoped to find.

1806 was the year Lewis & Clark returned from their expedition having set out in 1804. Imagine, unexplored territory in the US.

US Buckle Upgrade

Typical Plate Damage, Always a Challenge

Shown below are three relatively "common" union accoutrement plates. All had damage and the owner wanted more presentable relics. As always, matching the solder backing to the existing is the greatest challenge. This isn't to say face matching isn't difficult but getting a believable solder look with the exact layering of grays, white and earth tones continues to be the big hurdle in completing the work to my satisfaction. These came out rather well but only after hours of rework.

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.