One of My Superb Relic Hunting Finds in Upstate New York

Since the Upstate New York is closely related to events of the American Revolutionary War of Independence, Rev War relic hunting has been an intrinsic part of metal detecting in the region.

Even though the New York state and surrounding states also saw activities related to other major events of American history, such as the French-Indian War (1754–63) and 1812 War, the quest for the American Revolutionary War relics has been the first priority for relic hunters in the North-East USA. Any Rev War period items such as clothing, weapons, accouterments, tools, and living accessories, associated with the officer and enlisted man in the field are highly desirable collectibles. The Rev War military uniform buttons are not an exception.

I was only a beginner relic hunter when I found this USA button of the Continental Army circa 1777. At that time, my friend and I were relic hunting the slopes of the Hudson River's high bank on the side of Rensselaer County, New York. We were randomly metal detecting the forest floor when I hit the "hot" spot.

Along with this button, I recovered a massive bronze signet ring and an amber brooch (you can see their images in Revolutionary War Relics photo gallery). It is funny to remember it now, but, being a coinshooter and having no knowledge of Rev War artifacts at that time, I did not know what a great button I discovered until my friend looked at my relic find and identified it!

Specifications:

• Category: Continental Army, General Service;
• Material: cast pewter;
• Type: 1-piece button;
• Design: reeded border and a monogram of the initials USA;
• Diameter = 19 mm;
• Rarity: the most common marked American soldier's button of the period;

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ANNOUNCEMENT:

In January of 2020, I started a one-time fund-raising campaign in attempt to accumulate enough money to buy a simple but reliable 4x4 vehicle. My old 4x4 car (made in 1995) had faithfully served me for 10 years before it eventually went beyond repair last October. Without a 4WD, I will not be able to get to my hunt sites and test-plots hidden in the remote wooded areas inaccessible by a regular car.

Unlucky for me, those sites are the only locations available and suitable for my field-work which results in informative articles you can find on this website. For the past 10 years, my usual field-work has consisted of field-testing the latest metal detectors and accessories, experimenting with some of them, and devising new effective search methods that meet the requirements of the new metal detecting reality.

Before my car died, I managed to finish a couple of interesting detector-testing projects which will be covered in my upcoming articles. But other equally important projects that I was working on were not completed and had to be postponed until the Spring 2020. I hope that this fund-raising campaign will help me get a decent 4x4 by then so that I will be able to resume my work and to write more new articles, tutorials and guides based on data gathered through testing and experimentation.

If you find my website useful and would like it to provide more essential info for you and other detectorists worldwide, please consider chipping in $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can afford to keep MetalDetectingWorld.com growing in 2020. I promise you, it will be money well spent. Thank you.

More images of Revolutionary War buttons can be seen in Rev War Buttons photo gallery.