Button id please help

[kimonswanson643]

Found this button today and it has a full shank and is a flat button but I can't read what is on the back the only thing I can see on the back is some letters but I can't tell.also howdoiclean it please help.

 

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[nhbenz]

I believe a partial reading is "orange colour" (with the British spelling, indicating it is English). Someone can fill in what this means, and a correct date range, which is will be somewhere near 1820.

 

[smokeythecat]

Agreed, and I wouldn't try cleaning it because it look like the soil has eaten most of the top layer of the metal away already.

 

[nhbenz]

I'm fairly sure it says "Best" at the top, so Best Orange Colour.

 

[Ihatepoisonivy]

Looks like an old flat button to me.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Definitely an early-1800s brass 1-piece flatbutton. For that specific type, having indented (not raised) lettering in the backmark dates it from approximately 1810 through the late-1830s. Bhbenz is correct, the spelling of the word color as colour means it was manufactured in Great Britain. The word orange in the backmark refers to the color of the gold gilt. As you may already know, there are several colors of gold (and goldplating), depending on what metals the gold is alloyed with. Absolutely 100-pure gold is quite yellow. Depending on how much copper you add into the (molten) gold, the color will shift from its original yellow to "golden" to orange to pink to "red."