✅ SOLVED Help with "Waterloo" button please

[Catobra]

Hi All,

just joined, so please ignore me if I do/say something stupid

The other day after having my metal detector for 11 years and living in this house for 5, I finally decided to detect my backyard (ok, so I'm kinda lazy....)

I found the below button about 6 inches down and have researched the crap out of it online, and come close but have not found an exact match. The picture is not great, but the button is just shy of 3/4", says "WATERLOO" in all caps around the very edge, says, "BLUCHERS" and maybe "RICH" around the intact shank. Although by the pic it looks like there is a design around the opposite edge of WATERLOO, I think it is just a damage pattern. Now I know that Blucher fought against Napoleon at Waterloo and that there were commemortative buttons for Wellington-could this be a commemorative button for Blucher? Where I live in South Jersey was prime Hession territory during the Revolutionary War, so maybe someone came back after fighting at Waterloo? It fits pretty neatly together....



Thank you so much for any help!

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Yes, it is a Commemorative button regarding the Battle of Waterloo... and no, what you're seeing on the back is not a "damage pattern." It is a Victory Wreath, made of Laurel leaves.

The word "Rich" in the backmark is a quality-rating (referring to "Rich Gold Gilt"), which is frequently seen on British-made (and some American-made) buttons during the first half of the 1800s.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815... so your button was manufactured in Britain, sometime between that year and 1840.

 

[Catobra]

Thank You so much Cannonball Guy-nice to know I was headed in the right direction and am not a complete idiot