Today I was excited to see this picture on the Facebook page for my hometown of Clemson, SC:

Button from a Clemson cadet uniform

It was posted by Russ Hebert, who is also from Clemson and who found this during one of his metal detecting digs.  When I told Russ  I had written a novel based on stories about discarded buttons, he explained that “believe it or not, buttons are our most sought after relic. Buttons provide provenance and are easily (for most part) identifiable.”

He also linked to the YouTube video of the hunt that resulted in this button.  It’s a lot of fun so give it a look-see if you have a couple of minutes:

And, finally, he sent me a video of this mega button find in New England:

Sometimes I forget just how awesome buttons are as little distinct bits of history.  Things like this remind me!

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…..and as always, be sure to check out The Button Collector, a novel in stories.