Welcome!
» Log In
» Create A New Profile
Hunting Spanish Mission Era sites - First Phoenix Buttons
Posted by Cal_cobra
This forum is currently read only. You can not log in or make any changes. This is a temporary situation.
|
Hunting Spanish Mission Era sites - First Phoenix Buttons April 30, 2010 07:30PM |
A friend invited me to hunt some of his Spanish mission era sites. For all intent purposes the earliest California European settlements were from the Spanish from about 1770-1820. These sites are few and far between, and given that the entire non-Indian population in California during this era was under 2,000, finding relics and coins from these sites is like finding a needle in a haystack.
The first hunt was a pretty good, my hunting partner got a nice 1801 reale, and we ended up with two buttons each, including my first Phoenix cuff button! Phoenix buttons are one of the holly grails of early California relics, as these date from about 1807-1819, and were used as trade tokens. For the most part their only found at these Spanish mission era sites.
Also found a musket ball, and I we about tied on the green copper coulda beens (these old green copper bits and pieces are indicative of these early Spanish/Mission era sites).
At the next spot we hunted one can go for a long time without a signal, when you do get a good signal it really wakes you up :yikes:: I ended up getting my second Phoenix button there, and it's the larger sized button, from regiment No. 25. It needs further cleaning (I think a fine brass brush would help get the crud off, so far hydrogen peroxide has helped a bit, but I think it could clean up better as all the detail appears to be there). I also got a really nice gold gilt button, a small flat button, a silver ball button, musket balls, and one of the nicest dug wheatbacks (1916S) I've dug (see above).
The next hunt we did was a tough one, signals were few and far between and we both struggled even to find bits of green copper. I ended up getting a shankless gold gilt button that oddly looks like someone clipped the sides. Initially we thought it was a coin with the clipping, but after cleaning remnants of gold gilt and a few faint letters would seem to indicate it was a button that had a rough life. I also found what my friend believes is a silver cuff link/button that still has silver wire attached to the shank (see photo above).
Our next trip was an exploratory trip to test some new sites we learned about earlier. One spot eluded us, but further intel this week and some google map sleuthing confirmed it's location for a future trip. The second spot had all the makings of producing seateds to 1900's silver, and although it appeared to be a virgin site, the oldest coin we could muster up was a 59 memorial :bang: We both found multiple memorials from the 60's, but no silver coins which is really odd given the "purported" history of the site.
We closed the trip with a another try at one of the spots we hit previously and my friend was killing it with flat buttons. I strayed off the beaten path and was only finding occasional bits of green copper and a musket ball. I moved and started finding more bits of copper and after a while I found a ring at the same depth as the copper bits. When I initially showed it to my friend, he said he didn't think it was any later then the 1850's. After getting it home and cleaning it a bit and looking at it under a loupe, I suspect it's earlier. Underneath the stone setting are file marks, under a loupe you can see traces of gold plating. I doubt the green "stone" is anything other then colored glass, which was a common implement in early jewelry (a Colombian emerald would be great, but I'd expect the setting to be gold or silver). The use of bezel set cabochons and the crudeness of the ring looks very similar to 1700's Spanish era jewelry that I could find online.
Although I'd really hoped to find my first reale, hunting these earliest European influenced settlement sites in California gives one a new appreciation for metal detecting. It's something to find what little traces they left behind and even finding the green copper bits and pieces is interesting, as one can only imagine what these bits and pieces were originally made for. Tom thanks for the hunting, it's highly addictive and it's been quite an experience.
Thanks for looking and HH,
Brian
The first hunt was a pretty good, my hunting partner got a nice 1801 reale, and we ended up with two buttons each, including my first Phoenix cuff button! Phoenix buttons are one of the holly grails of early California relics, as these date from about 1807-1819, and were used as trade tokens. For the most part their only found at these Spanish mission era sites.
Also found a musket ball, and I we about tied on the green copper coulda beens (these old green copper bits and pieces are indicative of these early Spanish/Mission era sites).
At the next spot we hunted one can go for a long time without a signal, when you do get a good signal it really wakes you up :yikes:: I ended up getting my second Phoenix button there, and it's the larger sized button, from regiment No. 25. It needs further cleaning (I think a fine brass brush would help get the crud off, so far hydrogen peroxide has helped a bit, but I think it could clean up better as all the detail appears to be there). I also got a really nice gold gilt button, a small flat button, a silver ball button, musket balls, and one of the nicest dug wheatbacks (1916S) I've dug (see above).
The next hunt we did was a tough one, signals were few and far between and we both struggled even to find bits of green copper. I ended up getting a shankless gold gilt button that oddly looks like someone clipped the sides. Initially we thought it was a coin with the clipping, but after cleaning remnants of gold gilt and a few faint letters would seem to indicate it was a button that had a rough life. I also found what my friend believes is a silver cuff link/button that still has silver wire attached to the shank (see photo above).
Our next trip was an exploratory trip to test some new sites we learned about earlier. One spot eluded us, but further intel this week and some google map sleuthing confirmed it's location for a future trip. The second spot had all the makings of producing seateds to 1900's silver, and although it appeared to be a virgin site, the oldest coin we could muster up was a 59 memorial :bang: We both found multiple memorials from the 60's, but no silver coins which is really odd given the "purported" history of the site.
We closed the trip with a another try at one of the spots we hit previously and my friend was killing it with flat buttons. I strayed off the beaten path and was only finding occasional bits of green copper and a musket ball. I moved and started finding more bits of copper and after a while I found a ring at the same depth as the copper bits. When I initially showed it to my friend, he said he didn't think it was any later then the 1850's. After getting it home and cleaning it a bit and looking at it under a loupe, I suspect it's earlier. Underneath the stone setting are file marks, under a loupe you can see traces of gold plating. I doubt the green "stone" is anything other then colored glass, which was a common implement in early jewelry (a Colombian emerald would be great, but I'd expect the setting to be gold or silver). The use of bezel set cabochons and the crudeness of the ring looks very similar to 1700's Spanish era jewelry that I could find online.
Although I'd really hoped to find my first reale, hunting these earliest European influenced settlement sites in California gives one a new appreciation for metal detecting. It's something to find what little traces they left behind and even finding the green copper bits and pieces is interesting, as one can only imagine what these bits and pieces were originally made for. Tom thanks for the hunting, it's highly addictive and it's been quite an experience.
Thanks for looking and HH,
Brian