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Message:: [QUOTE="lordmarcovan, post: 3127880, member: 10461"]... Reaching into the muck and narrowly avoiding a cut finger from a piece of submerged broken glass he doesn't see,  the homeowner picks up the gleaming object.  His heart races as he is sure he has now found a gold coin. But as soon as it is in his hands, he can tell that it is not flat, like a coin would be.  It has a domed, convex feel to it, and it seems to be a uniform button. On the face of it, there is a ridiculously ornate Old English letter "C", with curlicues and flourishes, quite similar in fact to the one engraved on the top of the strongbox. <blockquote>"More crazy Klingon lettering", he thinks to himself.</blockquote> He does not recognize this as a letter "C".  As rendered, it really looks more like an Old English "E".  So the homeowner does not realize he has just found a "manuscript C" type Confederate Cavalry button. (*As it happens, there were also Confederate buttons with an "E" - for the Engineers.) [ATTACH=full]797394[/ATTACH] Image credit: Harry Ridgeway, <a href="http://www.relicman.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.relicman.com" rel="nofollow">relicman.com</a>. Soon he finds another button, and another, and more tarnished silver coins, as well as bits of broken glass.  At this stage he is blindly plunging his hand into the muck with growing excitement - and scratches his thumb on some broken glass, nearly cutting it - but has not yet lifted the largest mass of sodden currency and paper out of the box, to discover the unbroken jars underneath. The gilding on all of these buttons is intact and beautiful, and though the bare brass backs of them have darkened, the buttons are in exceptional condition.  They will later prove quite popular with collectors when sold, though not as much as some of the coins. Most of the buttons are of that "Manuscript C" cavalry variant, but there are also several with a palm tree on the front of them.  These bear the Palmetto crest of the South Carolina state seal, which the homeowner, himself a South Carolinian, recognizes.  [ATTACH=full]797395[/ATTACH] Image credit: Harry Ridgeway, <a href="http://www.relicman.com/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.relicman.com/" rel="nofollow">relicman.com</a>. What he does not recognize is the "H T & B MANCHESTER" backmark on the buttons, which indicates they were made by the firm of Hammond, Turner, & Bates in Manchester, England, and were smuggled into the Confederacy through the Federal naval blockade. [ATTACH=full]797396[/ATTACH] I once experienced the joy of digging one of these! So much of the backstory of these objects remains for him to discover, and he will study the history for the rest of his life, long after most of the treasure is sold.  He will keep a few pieces, however, and those will be passed down to his descendants for a few generations.  The story of their discovery will become embellished over time (much as it has here) - and garbled - but such is the nature of stories and legends....[/QUOTE]

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