Flat Button Info?

[rockjason37]

I was looking for some information on some flat buttons I found. Two of them are about 3/4" in diameter and the larger one has a honeycomb design on it. The small ones have written on them "superfine quality" "mich?" & the other "warranted fine gilt" "london". The larger one only has "best quality", they look to be 1800's? Any idea of year and/or value I would be very thankful.

 

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[nhbenz]

"Rich" rather than "Mich" on the superfine quality button, which (with indented markings) dates to 1810-1830.

 

[CRUSADER]

They are both as stated above early 1800s, no real value $$$ wise.

 

[Bryanhashemi]

large one might be a collar disk. Is the post on the large one threaded?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Rockjason37 sent me a PM early this morning (while I was asleep), saying he'd seen my past posts about these type of buttons and dating their backmarks. He asked for any more info I could provide about the specific ones he found. So, now that I see he has posted his buttons in the What-Is-It forum, I'm speaking up here with the additional info he requested, and some clarification.

In my past posts, I've been careful to specify that the "end-date" (1830s) I've supplied for the British-backmarked buttons is applicable only if they are dug in America. Importing of British-made 1-piece flatbuttons pretty much ended in the 1830s, because the US button-making industry had by then become capable of mass-producing them. So, the American clothing-making industry no longer needed to pay the expensive Import Tarrif (tax) to get the buttons they needed for clothing-manufacture. Thus, importing of the British-made ones had pretty much stopped by the late-1830s. However, I'm sure they continued to be manufactured in Britain in the 1840s. That is why I've said the dug-in-the-US ones don't date later than the 1830s.

So, Rockjason37's US-dug 1-piece brass flatbutton saying "Warranted Fine Gilt London" in indented lettering dates from the 1810s into the 1830s. The one whose backmark is written in raised lettering dates from the 1790s through the 1830s.

Sidenote, about the raised-lettering backmarked one:
In the past, due to info available at the time, I believed that raised-lettering backmarks on 1-piece brass buttons did not date prior to 1800. However, recent backmark-dating research has turned up a few which were made in the 1790s. So I've adjusted that brass-button backmark type's "earliest" date backward by 10 years.

About their dollar-value:
Relic-hunters very-very frequently dig these 1-piece brass flatbuttons here in Virginia. Therefore, they sell at Virginia relic shows for $2 (if the loop on the back isn't missing). Furthermore, it's not difficult to get a "large-quantity discount" --like a bag of 50 for $50. They are rarer in states which didn't have such a large early-1800s population, and thus can sell for a somewhat higher price there.