🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Help to Identify Flat Button

Horseshoe77

Tenderfoot
Jan 9, 2021
7
13
Minnesota
Detector(s) used
Minelab
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Metal detecting a MN farm field that had a homestead in 1870s for sure, as it showed up in the MN 1878 Atlas. May have been there as early as mid 1850s as that is when first folks showed up in this area. I found (7X) 19 mm flat buttons. They all had the shank except for one. Shank type looks to be embedded wire, so early 1800s? Any gilding is long gone from tumbling in the dirt for 150ish years. Back side stamping includes the words "EXTRA COLOUR" and there is a 10 pointed starburst etched around the shank and there is a circle etched between the starburst and the words. I've done some Google searches, but have come up with nothing to match what I have. Wondering if these buttons are military, or just off a farmer's shirt or jacket. Any help would be appreciated.

Other cool finds at this site were an 1864 beautiful green 2 cent coin with minimal wear, so was likely dropped while only a couple years old, and a Civil War era general services jacket button.
 

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Solution
Sounds to me like you happened upon an old homestead.....possibly burned down long ago, evidenced by the many nails. The pieces of broken glass and ceramics can likewise give clues to confirm the age of the structure and its occupation years. Your buttons are just part of the interpretation of the site. Many buttons are found at old sites and often show transitional time periods such as older flat buttons and later ones like your eagle button, which is military where the flats are civilian (Not seeing the obverses). Let's see some ceramic shards from the site, to see if there is supporting evidence of age.
I should have mentioned in my original post that these buttons were found scattered around about an acre of land. This acre had lots of surface debris like broken pottery, dishes, glass, as well as a million square nails. I'm curious if these buttons could have been military, of if they were just on the farmer's shirt or jacket.
 

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Sounds to me like you happened upon an old homestead.....possibly burned down long ago, evidenced by the many nails. The pieces of broken glass and ceramics can likewise give clues to confirm the age of the structure and its occupation years. Your buttons are just part of the interpretation of the site. Many buttons are found at old sites and often show transitional time periods such as older flat buttons and later ones like your eagle button, which is military where the flats are civilian (Not seeing the obverses). Let's see some ceramic shards from the site, to see if there is supporting evidence of age.
 

Upvote 1
Solution
Sounds to me like you happened upon an old homestead.....possibly burned down long ago, evidenced by the many nails. The pieces of broken glass and ceramics can likewise give clues to confirm the age of the structure and its occupation years. Your buttons are just part of the interpretation of the site. Many buttons are found at old sites and often show transitional time periods such as older flat buttons and later ones like your eagle button, which is military where the flats are civilian (Not seeing the obverses). Let's see some ceramic shards from the site, to see if there is supporting evidence of age.
Thanks for the insight!
 

Upvote 1

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