Found an unusual button, need help to I.D.

[50chevyJoe]

Found this button/medallion at a late 1600's site. Need help in identifying. It has what appears to have been a spot in the middle of the back for a button loop but the disc is flat. Made by the Waterbury Button Co, Waterbury Conn. and still retains a golden luster. Have seen buttons very similar to this online but they are all concave and appear to be two piece.

 

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[Ant]

Don't know Joe, but here are 2 that I found but they are most likely circa WWII or a little latter. You can compare your flat button with the modern ones that I found.

 

[duggap]

I will tell you what I think you have, but I don't swear I am correct. Hopefully CBG will check in and correct me if necessary. But I think you have a general service button from the civil war era that has been flattened. However, as best I can determine from that backmark, it is possible that it is post civil war. For Ant, let me say, you have a civil war era eagle D button. A very desirable button. The other is called a great seal button. They came in around 1903 and are still made today.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Somebody pressed that button flat after it was originally manufactured... note that it is slightly out-of-round. It is the 1854-to-1875 version of US Army "general service" button for Enlisted-men's ranks (private, corporal, sergeant).

According to the PHOTOS of Waterbury Button Company backmarks in the backmark-dating book by McGuinn & Bazelon, that specific one, showing "Waterbury Conn" in a ring inside the ring with the company's name, was in use from 1860 to 1890. But because I've seen very-very few DUG ones with that specific backmark during my 40 years as a civil war relic-dealer and digger, I believe it is either extremely late-war (like 1865) and later, or strictly post-1865. I think the dug ones were most likely lost by yankee soldiers during the so-called "Reconstruction" era's Military Occupation of the defeated southern states, which continued for 12 years after the Confederates surrendered.
Reconstruction Era - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[jwarner51]

Don't know Joe, but here are 2 that I found but they are most likely circa WWII or a little latter. You can compare your flat button with the modern ones that I found.

Your first button with a "D" is much older than WWII. The "D" stands for dragoons. Id'e say it -pre or -post Civil War. You other button is the right style for a WWII button.

 

[Ant]

I had just looked that up jwarner51. Wow, found it in San Bernardino, CA. I think i nail it with my digger.

 

[jwarner51]

I had just looked that up jwarner51. Wow, found it in San Bernardino, CA. I think i nail it with my digger.

Wow they aren't too common out here in the West. I've never found one....yet.

 

[50chevyJoe]

Thanks for your educated reply Cannonball. This is a plausible conclusion but I see no indication that this was originally a two piece clad button. There appears to be no seam or no flattening of the eagle relief that you would expect from being hammered or flattened. Even if it was run over by a train, the eagle would be distorted. Is it possible they produced medallions with the same characteristics as a button? Or maybe a one piece flat button. If not, I'll go with the flattened button. Thanks.