About This Artifact
An 18th-century dandy button recovered by Gary Drayton on Lot 24, one of nine four-acre properties once owned by Samuel Ball. The button was found during an intensive metal detecting survey alongside a copper coin bearing the image of King George II (dated 1727 to 1760), a lead musket ball ingot used by soldiers to chop off pieces and cast musket balls in a mould, a metal plate from the stock of a musket or pistol bearing what appeared to be an engraved name or signature, and six additional King George II copper coins concentrated in a small radius.
Dandy buttons were decorative fasteners popular in the 18th century, typically made of brass or copper alloy and often featuring ornamental designs on their face. They were worn on civilian clothing by men of means, distinguishing them from the plainer buttons found on working garments. Gary concluded that the density and type of artifacts recovered from the site pointed to a British military encampment, a finding that supported Fred Nolan's longstanding theory connecting the treasure to the 1762 British sacking of Havana, when the Royal Navy confiscated a vast hoard of Spanish gold and sailed to the port of Halifax, roughly 60 miles north of Oak Island.
The recovery site on Lot 24 was part of the extensive landholdings of Samuel Ball, who arrived on Oak Island in 1787 as a cabbage farmer but became one of Nova Scotia's wealthiest landowners through means that have never been satisfactorily explained. Charles Barkhouse noted during the search that the 1870 first edition of Mather Myles DesBrisay's History of the County of Lunenburg lists Ball as one of the original Money Pit discoverers rather than Anthony Vaughn, a detail removed without explanation in later editions.
Historical Context
Gary Drayton & Charles Barkhouse
Where It Was Found
Found at Samuel Ball's property — Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
