55 Button Spill at Cellar Hole

A few days ago, I headed out to a new spot that I had high hopes for. I started swinging on a hill directly behind a cellar, when I isolated a good target between lots of iron on my MXT Pro. I dug down and pulled out a nice colonial dandy button and noticed there were more buttons in the hole. I eyeballed 3 or so more buttons before I decided to see if I could locate anymore, and sure enough they kept coming. I extended the width of the hole and was equipped with only my eyes and my pinpointer.

I spent the remainder of my time there scouring the area for buttons, and by the time I was done I had accumulated over 50 colonial buttons. Almost all of them are in good condition, with the shanks standing perfectly upright, and plenty of them have designs/patterns too. Among the buttons, I found a rare War of 1812 era diplomat's button... Definitely one of my favorite button finds to date.

thats a killer find!

Now that is pretty cool ! Any design on the face of the button in the 4th row down, 5th in from the left ?

Now that's a great hunt. Any clue as to why they were all congregated in that one spot? I consider it a good day finding only 1 colonial button.
Congrats on the War of 1812 button.

mg: Were the buttons in such a way as to suggest they were attached to clothing and the clothes rotted away....or in a pile? That is one incredible find!!

Nice score. I think I saw this posted on the bookface, but I didn't think it was you that posted. Lol. So many people on there that I can't keep track. Ref below to Drew....

OxShoeDrew said:

Were the buttons in such a way as to suggest they were attached to clothing and the clothes rotted away....or in a pile?

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Drew, I thought you knew on history by now. We don't have many CW encampments around here, however that was one reasoning I have heard for spills of buttons. The thing we did have around here were shoddy mills. A perfect reason why the shanks would be intact. Usually the shoddy mills had more like 1000s of buttons, but maybe this was a small time person who repurposed clothes or their trade was such.

Great button "cache" find Sam , not too many explanations can be given for that many buttons in one spot . Maybe a spot where they burned some clothes (smallpox and cholera outbreak) which was a common thing to prevent the spread of disease. Also where someone was pulling off buttons to recycle the wool like someone mentioned are the two most likely . Either way its very cool to find that many .

Dan

Great lot of buttons, awesome find!

I have one other viable explanation. As what happens even today-wife catches hubby cheating on her, she burns all his clothes and or belongings in the yard. :lol:

Thanks!!

aloldstuff said:

Now that's a great hunt. Any clue as to why they were all congregated in that one spot? I consider it a good day finding only 1 colonial button.
Congrats on the War of 1812 button.

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Thanks! Not entirely sure honestly... couldn't really come up with a plausible theory other than a clothing dump, but the buttons were within such a close proximity almost as if they were dumped there, so I'm not certain!

OxShoeDrew said:

mg: Were the buttons in such a way as to suggest they were attached to clothing and the clothes rotted away....or in a pile? That is one incredible find!!

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They were all within a close proximity of each other, within a two-foot wide hole I dug out. Although there very well could be lots more buttons on the side of that hill; I plan on going back with better equipment. Thanks!

Digger_O'Dell said:

Great lot of buttons, awesome find!

I have one other viable explanation. As what happens even today-wife catches hubby cheating on her, she burns all his clothes and or belongings in the yard. :lol:

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Thanks! That's better than any explanation I could come up with! :lol:

del said:

Great button "cache" find Sam , not too many explanations can be given for that many buttons in one spot . Maybe a spot where they burned some clothes (smallpox and cholera outbreak) which was a common thing to prevent the spread of disease. Also where someone was pulling off buttons to recycle the wool like someone mentioned are the two most likely . Either way its very cool to find that many .

Dan

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Thanks! I'm very curious myself as to why they were all within such a close proximity of each other (2 feet), although there definitely could be more buttons on the side of the hill. I plan on going back sometime soon, this time better equipped.

WOW! That's an amazing hunt!

Fantastic button spill Sam! I'd agree with Del on the two most logical explanations on why they were there. I would add that if they were from burned clothing due to a cholera/smallpox outbreak etc, you'd expect to find many of the buttons of the same variety. Congrats nonetheless!

John