🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Belgian Coat of Arms button?

[Too3zln]

Found this detecting at a park in Nebraska. Doing some light internet searching tells me this is the Belgian coat of arms. I can't find any definitive information about it. I didn't want to scrub it because of the gilt, and have since given it away. Thanks for any help.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[DCMatt]

The rusted out back tells the story on this one. If it was old, the back would also be brass.

It is a modern blazer button with a fake coat-of-arms embossed on the front.

 

[Red-Coat]

Agree it's a blazer button with borrowed heraldry.

It’s not the Belgian coat of arms, which would have the motto “L'union fait la force” in French or “Eendracht maakt macht” in Dutch (both meaning “Unity Is Strength”).

The motto seems to be an incorrect rendition of the motto used on the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1815. It should read “Je Maintiendrai” (meaning “I will Maintain”) but it seems to be a mis-spelling or variation of that, which confirms it’s not an official button.

The nine provinces in the southern part of the Kingdom, calling themselves “Belgians” seceded from it in the 1830 revolution, leading to an independent Belgium finally being recognised in 1839. Belgium used essentially the same armorial as the Netherlands did prior to the separation of the southern provinces, but with one or other of the “Unity Is Strength” mottoes in reference to the solidarity of the now-independent provinces that united to become modern Belgium.