Retired fire-chief Rick Pressl first asked to do metal detection and digging in the Nature Preserve near the
, spoons, tongs, nails, horseshoes and so forth. This went faster after Pressl roped in a few students in at the start of the summer.
But the big find came when Pressl broadened his search onto Old Colonial Road and found the remains of a cellar.
A little brass button, the first of four, with GW stamped in the centre and "Long Live the President" around the edge appeared.
No, it wasn't from die-hard George Dubya supporters, forced to go underground, but rather in celebration of George Washington, the first President of the United States.
Pressl had found the treasure he wasn't looking for: the buttons could each sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
The cellar held several more items of more modest value, and all them are now held by the Schiff Trust, which looks after the Nature Reserve, but it hasn't yet been decided where they'll go in the long run.
Pressl gives a great example of the pride and sense of history that can come from handling collectibles - even if you have no financial stake in them.
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