✅ SOLVED Eagle Buttons Without Backmarks - Need ID

Old Pueblo

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Mar 7, 2017
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Does anyone know how old these Eagle buttons are? They were found in a garbage dump from an old mining camp that goes back to the 1880s. There is no writing on the back, which seems unusual but Im not the expert here. If anyone knows more, please let me know. Thank you all.

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The EXACT version of eagle on those buttons tells us they were made sometime between 1854 and 1875, when a slightly-different eagle replaced this one. Further, most of the 1854-1875 non-backmarked "eagle buttons" were made during the second half of the civil war. But please note, I said most, not "all." :) Also, there were a LOT of unused leftover army buttons at the end of the civil war. Yours may have been issued several years after the war ended. (But not after 1875, when they were no longer the "Regulation" version.)
 

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The EXACT version of eagle on those buttons tells us they were made sometime between 1854 and 1875, when a slightly-different eagle replaced this one. Further, most of the 1854-1875 non-backmarked "eagle buttons" were made during the second half of the civil war. But please note, I said most, not "all." :) Also, there were a LOT of unused leftover army buttons at the end of the civil war. Yours may have been issued several years after the war ended. (But not after 1875, when they were no longer the "Regulation" version.)

Thats amazing . Thank you. I never thought I would get so lucky. Like I said, these were found just a few feet off the dirt road, which is still well used, as there are several houses along it, and even more old mines scattered throughout the hills. These mines go back to the 1880s, from what Ive learned over the years, and actually play a significant role in the founding of the town I live in, so they are special. And since they date to 1854-75, and were found in a mining camp that goes back to the 1880s, there must have been an old soldier living here. This place was never the site of an army camp or anything, and I found several Levi Strauss & Co. work buttons and rivets in the immediate vicinity.
 

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