Nov 16, 2013: 17 buttons, old watch fob? and a piece of silver

pcgs69

Got back to the field that's yielded buttons and some older coins in the past. Man, what nice weather! Within a few minutes the first button came out! Then another, so it looked like it was the right area to start in. Shortly later a piece came out that I think is an old watch fob? Can anyone ID it? At first it looked almost like a seal, but the stone at the end killed that idea. Ended with a record-tying 17 buttons.

BUT WHERE WERE THE OLD COINS? Snuck out two wheat cents, an 1865 IHC and 1943-P WTN. Was hoping for some older coins to show up, but still got plenty of goodies! Any idea what that half-crumbled lead thing is?

HH all!

ricko

No idea on those two items... at first I thought the pendant type item might have been a was seal stamp...but after seeing the close up pictures, I guess not... good day though... lots of finds...Cheers, RickO

pcgs69

Here's what someone posted on Treasurenet:

Nice finds, that is a fob wax seal. I found one similar about a year or two ago.

Here is part of a reply from Crusader about my blank stoned seal: "They became a fashion statement, only the rich had Seals, but the upwardly mobile working class/merchant/trader/middle class wore them around the neck to look more important than they were. They were never used, the blank one that is."

Since that reply, later on I did read that sometimes the blank seal was used in conjunction with a signature, making it appear more legal perhaps? But anyway, no doubt that was a Fob Seal that was worn around the neck.

lordmarcovan

Awesome stuff.

Perhaps the seal had a glass or gemstone matrix which fell out?

Those flat buttons are great. Looks like you have some nice variety and a fair amount of backmarked ones.

Do you have the Albert button book, or any other references?

Albert is only for American uniform buttons, but it has a maker's index in the back which dates some of the companies one sees named on a lot of these buttons (and the companies which made uniform buttons usually made civilian ones as well). For all I know, that information might be available online and/or in more recent/more detailed references, too.

I like the IHC. It looks like there's a tiny hole in it? Interesting. I found an 1871 with a similarly-placed small hole, once.

And you got a tiny bit of silver, too.