✅ SOLVED Another flat button question

[Mkriglet]

I dug this button today on an old farm, in the woods. It is my first flat button and I was super excited. Any help with information on it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

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[BARKER]

Hi; BEST means they used the BEST materials to gilt the button. In your case the gilt is gone. Dates to late 1700's. Nice Find. PEACE:RONB

 

[Mkriglet]

Thanks BARKER! With that info, I must go back to hunt some more.

 

[BARKER]

Hi; Yup, the old saying is, "Where there's one, There's more." Kill your Discrimination. Turn up your Sensitivity and dig EVERY BLASTED SIGNAL ok. Even if they sound iffyor faint. Remember what is trash to Us today was used back then. So if you get a trash signal, DIG IT.!!! Then you will make some nice finds ok. Good Luck. PEACE:RONB

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Because it's your first brass 1-piece "flatbutton, and you want as much info about it as you can get, I'll speak up. The key clue for accurately time-dating it is the backmark... especially, being written in raised letters, instead of indented letters. Brass 1-piece flatbuttons with raised lettering backmark date from approximately 1790 into the 1830s. Ones with indented lettering start showing up about 1810. Most which are dug in the US were manufactured in Britain and imported by clothing-makers here, because the infant Marican button-making industry was unable to meet the demand until the 1820s. So, one with raised lettering, being earlier, is much more likely to have been made in Britain.

Flatbutton backmarks tend to have a word (or two) stating the manufacturing quality-level. But like most advertizing, superlative terms get used recklessly. For example, "best" quality actually ranks about in the middle of the quality-ratings. The following ratings are commonly seen on brass 1-piece flatbuttons:
Standard Quality
Extra Quality
Best Quality
Superior Quality
Superfine Quality
Extra Superfine.

The word "plated" in a flatbutton's backmark always meant silverplating, and the word "gilt" meant goldplating.

Some British-made flatbuttons will say "London" or another British city in the backmark. Other British-made ones can be deduced by containing a word with a uniquely British spelling, such as "colour" for color. Also, some British-made ones show a British crown in the backmark. An eagle in the backmark is believed to represent American manufacture, but it might be a false advertizing, because many Americans boycotted British products after the War Of 1812. We know with certainty that some American companies imported British-made buttons at that time but had the button-maker put an American name or symbol in the backmark, to hide the button's actual source.

Info-source:
The book "American Military Button Makers And Dealers; Their Backmarks & Dates" by William F. McGuinn and Bruce S. Bazelon. I highly recommend it. Available online from various sellers for about $30.

 

[Mkriglet]

Wow, that is great information. Thank you.

 

[relic lover]

Many more interesting old discoveries await you at that place.