Have any of you ever dug these type buttons?

By the style their Pre Rev-War for sure...

Heres what I've been told..And Im not an expert on these real ealry buttons....but before the British had numbered buttons they used tree's as rank for the officer's...I believe they started in the 1750s with numbered buttons....and Ive been told these I've dug are about 1730-1740..Dogwood..

I do know I dug them out of an early house site....along with a cut Piece of silver and a real early set of Pewter cufllinks..and a ton of other early brass...

but I still dont know...anyone an expert on early Button's...

It looks like it was poured in the field in a gang mold...I have 4 just like it...Could just be flower buttons for the early settler's to make on their own here in the Colonies? dont Know...





Keith

I'm not gonna find buttons like that in my area.

Is that shank broken Keith?

Aaron

Yes Aaron all the ones I have the shank is corroded off more or less..

these butons are made of pewter and cast as one piece..so the shank is fragile...

In certain dirts these buttons would not have survived..

Heres a side shot



Dont dimiss your area Aaron as not being Early enough to hold 18th century artifacts or even earlier...

My area was not DEVELOPED till 1830 but that does not mean nothing..

Keith

Hey Keith,

In metro Detroit area, yes there are areas, however very few. The area is really built up. There have been a few areas that have produced relics from the 1812 War.

I do have a area that Ive hunting that has 200yrs of history and found lots of relics from early to mid 1800s but that's it!

Congrats on that button, hopefully you can find some Spanish silver!

Aaron

We do get these type of buttons here in the U.K, they are considered to be older than the dates you mentioned. But they corrode badly, so generally look a mess even if they are only 100 years old...here's a link to a few on a finds database:
[www.ukdfd.co.uk]
[www.ukdfd.co.uk]
[www.ukdfd.co.uk]

Thanks Pimento excellent link you sent..

and those styles do look like mine..

I lean towards mine being 17th century..maybe around 1650 or so..

This house site is really really early...

Thanks again for the info...

I might post something else i found in there.Too..see if you can date it..

Keitj

Wow Keith, same type buttons Pimento displayed.......old for the US.... cool find!

Detroit was founded in 1701.

Yes Leggo the French settled that area real early like you said..

If I lived up that way I would be looking for some of the frontier forts....Trade post...

Ive seen the stuff that comes out of Michigan.Other good sites are the old indian villages.. they did alot of trading...I used to keep up with the indian artifact hunters and the trade stuff they dug out of Michigan was unreal on the village sites...

Fort Michilimackinac ....work the trails from the fort South toward Detroit every 10 miles and see if you can find the camps.Stockades..

Theres some 1600's french sites in that State too...

But I know its hard to locate alot of those real early sites without alot of field work...And it might go months without a single find....

But usually if you can find one and figure out the trails you can find others at intervals along the trails...

But again its time consuming...

Keith

Very nice button Keith. I have seen guys from the colonial areas find button with those kinds of shanks.
Corey

Nice button/find Keith

and you are right about the stuff that "can" be found in Michigan here

but

finding a site that will produce stuff from the 1700s or earlier is very very hard to do. Anything from around the 1830s on up is fairly easy because of the Treaty of 1821 and 1833 which opened the flood gates for settlers to the area --- before then this place was the wilderness (anywhere north & west of Detroit - which is like 95% of Michigan) and you were subject to the possibility of being killed, scalped, cooked and eaten by some of native Indians!

Do a search for "Scull Island Bay City Michigan" -- you'll start to get a picture of the type of Injuns that occupied the area! There was a massacre on that island and the surrounding area -- 3 large tribes got together and exterminated the Sulk Indian tribe over a period of 2 or 3 days/nights -- it ended on that island one night when the Saginaw river froze over and the 3 tribes walked across the ice to finish off the last of the sulks/tribe which were savage type people who killed 1st and asked questions after they ate you! They were a "Waring" type people --- killed many other Indian peoples and whoever they came in contact with.

The island is/was full of sculls/skeletons from the massacre -- one of my buddies dads was in on an archaeological dig there in the early 1990s -- they found stuff you mainly only see/read about in books!