Musket balls, buttons, and Whats it?

[Hangingfor8]

Musket balls, buttons, and What's it?

I hit a site today that has produced items from as far back as the 1600s. I don't think the buttons and Musket balls are older than 1800s, but the gear looking thing has me puzzled. I have no idea what it is, but I have also found and an American Light Artillary 1st reg button so could it be artillary related?



Musket balls, buttons, and what's it?

Spanish F7 button

Light Artillary 1st reg

Artillary Button. It's hard to see the "A" on the eagles breast but it's there.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

All of your buttons date from the early-1800s, and the US Military ones may be connected with Seminole Wars activity.

Your 1-piece brass button with LA-1 on it is a US Army Ist Light Artillery Regiment button. The very-specific version you found was manufactured only between 1816 and 1818.

Your eagle-with-A-on-shield brass button is a US Army Artilleryman's button. If it is a 1-piece button, it dates from 1821 to the early-1830s. If it's a 2-piece, it dates from the mid-1830s through the 1840s.

The button with a crown and F 7 is a European army button. I need to see its back, and to know whether it is made of brass or pewter to help ID it more specifically. It appears to be a 1-piece button from the late-1700s to early-1800s. The crown with dots on it looks Prussian, but could be British or Spanish. I lean somewhat toward Spanish because that nation's troops were stationed in Florida from 1783 until the cession of Florida to the US (for $5 million) in 1819.

Your plain-front 1-piece brass buttons are civilian-usage "flatbuttons." The one with an eagle-with-shield in its backmark is American-made, therefore dating from the 1820s through the 1830s. The one saying "Standard" in indented letters in the backmark is probably British-made, and dates from approximately 1810 into the 1830s.

It would be helpful to see close-up photos of the backs of all the buttons which have an emblem on their front, to confirm (and perhaps narrow down) the date-ranges I've given you above.

 

[Hangingfor8]

The Spanish F7 is pewter, but was made in London. The eagle with an A button is the concave one piece type. I've found more than one of that type.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you for the info on the eagle-A and the crown-with-F7 button. I'm still leaning toward Spanish, for two reasons:
1- There's no match-up for it in the two databanks I've seen on "historical" British Army buttons.
2- We know for certain that the Spanish government did purchase some military buttons from British manufacturers.

About the disc with tiny rounded-top tabs encircling it:
My specialty-area is pre-20th-Century artillery relics. I do not recognize the disc as being from anything artillery-related. The rounded-top tabs resemble gear-teeth, so perhaps it is from a clock or similar mechanism. I think it is from a much later time-period than your other finds in the photos.

 

[Hangingfor8]

It very well could be from a later date. I'm amazed how the different time periods have ovelapped on this site. If you go to this site and look halfway down I can confirm the Spanish F7 button Mrkdbts

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thanks for confirming my "educated guess" about the F7 button. And, thank you very much for posting that link! It fills a hole in my database. (I've got reference material for USA, CSA, British, and French military buttons ...but until now, not much for Spanish ones.) I've now bookmarked your link.

 

[Hangingfor8]

You're welcome. i've used that link many times and I've found a good number of the items on there. I've spent alot of time in the woods... so much so that I'm surprised I have been snake bitten or contracted lime disease. I think people forget that we have lots of great inland sites and focus too much on the beaches.

 

[Hangingfor8]

bump

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Great finds there, not a bad days hunt @ all..