✅ SOLVED pewter marked 'sn'

[McCDig]

Found this today at a site that has yielded colonial items: buttons, musketballs, later 1700s coins, and a couple buckle fragments.

This item has me stumped.

It distinctly bears the lower-case letters 's' 'n', is thin and somewhat brittle. You see from the pic that in handling out of the ground it began to fragment.

Because of its shape I don't think this was part of something larger.

Ideas?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[smokeythecat]

US General Service button. War of 1812 period. Should be more late colonial early 19th century on the site. Watch for those pesky Spanish silvers.

 

[Tony in SC]

Nice old US button! I'd hit that area with a fine toothed comb.

 

[McCDig]

Thanks Smokey! We all just had a great laugh here around the dining room table as I realized that I was looking at it upside down! Great fun and we appreciate you solving this "mystery". I made it harder than it had to be.

 

[McCDig]

Thanks Tony! Appreciate your input. Very interesting site. More to come.

 

[smokeythecat]

Believe it or not, I have never dug one of these. Dug two Confederate block "I"'s yesterday, one really busted up, but almost no War of 1812 period buttons. Only two ever.

 

[McCDig]

Thought you'd like to see the button without having to turn your computer upside down.

 

[smokeythecat]

Wow, I was going to turn the computer upside down. I spray mine with clean polyurethane and blot it quickly to get off the excess. I have had buttons hold up 25 years doing that.

 

[McCDig]

Thanks for the intel on preservation.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Seeing what appears to be a rust blister on the disc's front, and seeing the first photo showing what seems to be the color of brass, I'm wondering if it isn't a pre-civil-war US horseharness rosette, rather than a pewter US button. Also, the ruler in your photo shows your US-marked disc is at LEAST 1-&-1/8th-inch (about 28mm) in diameter, whereas the pewter US buttons are only 18-to-20mm in diameter. The size in particular is pretty convincing that it is a US rosette. So I must ask, does it have a thread-loop on the back, or the broken-off remnant of one? More photos, showing the back, please.

 

[smokeythecat]

Cannonballguy has a good point. What does the back look like?

 

[gsxraddict]

It's definitely a rosette, see the bulge on the front on the top above the US, that's where the rust has had a reaction from the iron post on the back.

I've never seen this rosette style but I'm pretty confident on the back you'll find evidence where iron posts were.

 

[McCDig]

Thank you. Photo of back is on the way. Back seems to have no indication of cast line or loop.

 

[McCDig]

Here are a number of back photos. Not sure these shed any further light on the id. Top of back corresponds to iron stain at top of obverse views.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The new photos confirm it is a US horse-harness rosette. Since Gsxraddict says he hasn't seen this type before, here are some photos showing the front and back of one in somewhat better condition. Rust-blisters are common on this type, because the stamped-brass "shell" front was thin and the iron wire attachments corrode through it easily. As I mentioned previously, this type is pre-civil-war. One has been found at an 1830s/40s US Dragoons ("Heavy Cavalry") site with eagle-D buttons in Oklahoma. See the photos at:
Category: - Gonehunting For History
This type has also been found occasionally at early-civil-war (1861-63) sites here in Virginia.

 

[McCDig]

Looking at these pics, there does appear to be two adjacent prominences near the middle of the back. Might these be remnants of an earlier eyelet?

 

[McCDig]

Big thanks to Smokey for getting to see the "U S" in this piece and then to TheCannonballGuy and Gsxraddict for 'nailing' the rosette id.
Thanks to all!

 

[McCDig]

Interesting that about a 200 feet from this rosette I found an Enfield bullet. Just coincidence?

 

[gsxraddict]

Interesting that about a 200 feet from this rosette I found an Enfield bullet. Just coincidence?

You'll never know, being a pre-war rosette it's very possible the Confederates used them during the war.

It could also be ground that both sides were on.

 

[Spats]

You'll never know, being a pre-war rosette it's very possible the Confederates used them during the war.

It could also be ground that both sides were on.

If used by Confederates during the war, you may have had it right side up in your first photos. The Confederates were said to have used US belt buckles upside down, claiming that the letters "sn" stood for southern nation. Same could have been done with rosettes. So upside down may be right side up!