Calling all button people

[cti4sw]

Got a one-piece flat button here, plain front, 18.2mm diameter. For all that it's a great phone camera, the Galaxy 4 cannot focus on small details.



Reverse has two lines:

(1) * T _ _ E L _ S I _ T * WARRANTED (letters are guesstimated)

(2) STAND GOLD _ ("GOLD" could be "COLOU")

From under the microscope:



The first pic you can clearly see the WARRANTED. In the second, the TREBLE is much clearer.



Between these two pics, the GILT and STAND : COLOUR is much more defined.

God, I love this scope.

EDIT: Got another one for you to look at. This one is tiny, gonna say 12-13mm, with lettering on the back. Here are the scope pics:

 

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[Elad]

Sounds like an imported (probably made in London) one piece flat button, circa mid 19th century.

STAND is short for standard. GOLD is referring to the Gilt that used to be on it.

If you see color spelt with a U, then it's British made.

 

[cti4sw]

If you see color spelt with a U, then it's British made.

It's the GOLD, looks like there is a letter after the D that resembles a U, so it could either be GOLD or COLOU (can't see anything after the possible U).

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The coming super-closeup photos will give more certainty... but meanwhile, it sounds like your brass 1-piece flatbutton's backmark is actually "TREBLE GILT STANDd COLOUR" -- a common backmark on 1800-1830s British-made brass 1-piece flatbuttons.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Good way to remember sometimes is that like posted above "colour" is British way of saying the American "color" so if a button is got "color" on it, it is American made from 1815+ and if it is got "colour" the button may date earlier from 1790s+ ... After War of 1812 is when the American button manufacturing took off..

 

[cti4sw]

Good way to remember sometimes is that like posted above "colour" is British way of saying the American "color" so if a button is got "color" on it, it is American made from 1815+ and if it is got "colour" the button may date earlier from 1790s+ ... After War of 1812 is when the American button manufacturing took off..

I did know that about British spelling of "colour", "favourite", etc. What I did not know is anything regarding button manufacturing history.

The coming super-closeup photos will give more certainty... but meanwhile, it sounds like your brass 1-piece flatbutton's backmark is actually "TREBLE GILT STANDd COLOUR" -- a common backmark on 1800-1830s British-made brass 1-piece flatbuttons.

Did those say WARRANTED on them? Nice age, though, a little out of place for the field where I found it (not the banner field, different site altogether). Where I found it has some confirmed history from c. 1880-1920 and, although there is no known history before that, I did happen to find a nearly-smooth unidentifiable large cent. I know it's an LC because you can just barely see "CENT" and the bow on the wreath, but that is all.

Keep an eye out Monday morning. I'm all caught up at work so I'll have plenty of time to get those scope pics.

 

[cti4sw]

The coming super-closeup photos will give more certainty... but meanwhile, it sounds like your brass 1-piece flatbutton's backmark is actually "TREBLE GILT STANDd COLOUR" -- a common backmark on 1800-1830s British-made brass 1-piece flatbuttons.

Actually, looking at my hangman's anagram, I think you're right. "T _ _ E L _ S I _ T" could actually be "TREBLE GILT". That E I saw could have been a B, and the S could have been a G. Makes sense.

I added a pic of the button itself, but don't bother scouring it for detail. Will post the scope pics tomorrow.

 

[coinman123]

I think it is from the early 1800s.

 

[cti4sw]

The coming super-closeup photos will give more certainty... but meanwhile, it sounds like your brass 1-piece flatbutton's backmark is actually "TREBLE GILT STANDd COLOUR" -- a common backmark on 1800-1830s British-made brass 1-piece flatbuttons.

Scope pics added. Okay, so it's a British button. What were they used on? Military uniforms?

 

[TNGUNS]

cti4sw, I have been in some sites loaded with similar. Some even have "LONDON" on them. STRONG, BEST,TREBLE, GILT, STANDARD, TRIPLE, COLOUR, in different combinations are found on most of them. From what members told me on most of mine they are 1790-1830. The ghost town I am hunting started in 1812 and by 1814 it was a pretty good size little town. The site already had a few settlers when it was decided to build a town and one of my sites looks a little earlier. Unlike yours NOT ONE SINGLE COIN from the period. Just can't figure out why. Still trying though. The pic of below is the first few hours in one of them.

 

[cti4sw]

cti4sw, I have been in some sites loaded with similar. Some even have "LONDON" on them. STRONG, BEST,TREBLE, GILT, STANDARD, TRIPLE, COLOUR, in different combinations are found on most of them. From what members told me on most of mine they are 1790-1830. The ghost town I am hunting started in 1812 and by 1814 it was a pretty good size little town. The site already had a few settlers when it was decided to build a town and one of my sites looks a little earlier. Unlike yours NOT ONE SINGLE COIN from the period. Just can't figure out why. Still trying though. The pic of below is the first few hours in one of them.

Looks like a good haul nonetheless, and similar to what I typically find here (plus an occasional coin or two). Wish I could find some military buttons but hey, these people who farmed this land were largely Pennsylvania Dutch and despite what you see on TV these days they were not violent people.

 

[TNGUNS]

I have been lucky enough to find scattered CW relics in almost all of them. When they hit coal in the area and the railroad came in, it killed the river traffic which supported this town. Due to its location, lots of troop movement through it during the war though. All the labor etc moved to a town about 7 miles away because of the coal industry and the town died within just a few years. The only known camp is beat to death but still pulled a few bullets and a button or two (all Merrill Carbines). I feel sure there are more camps in the area. The one that seems to be the oldest site had never yielded any CW stuff till last week and I got a Eagel GS out of it. I am just waiting for them to cut hay in the best one to try my new T2 SE...... if he cuts it again this year. Man you have found some great coins in yours.

 

[cti4sw]

Thanks TN. I wish I could find some decent military relics here in PA. I don't live close enough to Gettysburg so I doubt I'll ever see any decent CW stuff unless I do some traveling. I do know that PA mustered a good bit of militia manpower but I'm not aware of any CW mustering or drilling spots near me.

This area was a hotbed of RW activity though, and I do have a Brown Bess musketball, an intact flint from a flintlock rifle, and a chunk of a lead ingot used for musketball field molds. Would be nice to find some butt plates, gun parts, sword pieces, more musket balls, buttons, stuff like that.

I do like the yields I have seen from people who hunt hayfields. I guess since hayfields aren't a major food crop and could be harvested whether it was trampled or not made it a nice place for camping and such.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Cti4sw wrote:
> Okay, so it's a British button. What were they used on? Military uniforms?

They were manufactured for use by the civilian-clothing industry. The Military very much preferred buttons with a Military emblem on them. We do know that at least a few of the plain-front brass 1-piece buttons have turned up on "underfunded" local Militia Unit uniforms, and on a few Military School uniforms. But it's clear that the vast majority of the plain-front buttons were used on Civilian clothing.

The reason that so many of them were imported into the newly independent US from Britain in the early 1800s is that the young American button-making industry was incapable of mass-producing even nearly enough of them to satisfy the demand-level from the clothing-industry until the 1830s.

 

[cti4sw]

Cti4sw wrote:
> Okay, so it's a British button. What were they used on? Military uniforms?

They were manufactured for use by the civilian-clothing industry. The Military very much preferred buttons with a Military emblem on them. We do know that at least a few of the plain-front brass 1-piece buttons have turned up on "underfunded" local Militia Unit uniforms, and on a few Military School uniforms. But it's clear that the vast majority of the plain-front buttons were used on Civilian clothing.

The reason that so many of them were imported into the newly independent US from Britain in the early 1800s is that the young American button-making industry was incapable of mass-producing even nearly enough of them to satisfy the demand-level from the clothing-industry until the 1830s.

Cool, thanks for the info. What do you think of the second button?