🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Possibly Navy Button ?

[creade]

I dug this today. I believe it's a Navy button but not sure. The front is brass , the back was iron so is all corroded. Anyone seen this before?

 

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[ncsuwolf]

I dug this today. I believe it's a Navy button but not sure. The front is brass , the back was iron so is all corroded. Anyone seen this before?

Not a button expert, but have dug 3-4 “navy” buttons like this. Appears to be brass front and tin back. Some of those were used in military, but as I understand the vast majority were civilian. Could be wrong about this particular button, but all mine are not military.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Definitely a Civilian-usage "Fashion" button, from an Imitation navy pea-coat or other "nautical-themed" coat or jacket. Actual Military-Issue Navy buttons do not use an iron/steel back, because eventually that back will make a rust stain on the uniform jacket or coat.

Also, note that your button's emblem has a "pebbled background"... which is definitely a Civilian characteristic.

There are two exceptions I know of:
(1) A civil war era US Navy kepi-strap button sometimes had an iron back. Why? Iron is cheaper than brass, and the rust-stain doesn't show on the kepi-hat's leather chinstrap.
(2) Some varieties of actual Military-issue Confederate buttons had an iron back, due to the serious scarcity of brass in the wartime South.

 

[creade]

Definitely a Civilian-usage "Fashion" button, from an Imitation pea-coat or other "nautical-themed" coat or jacket. Actual Military-Issue Navy buttons do not use an iron/steel back, because eventually that back will make a rust stain on the uniform jacket or coat.

Also, note that your button's emblem has a "pebbled background"... which is definitely a Civilian characteristic.

There are two exceptions I know of:
(1) A civil war era US Navy kepi-strap button sometimes had an iron back. Why? Iron is cheaper than brass, and the rust-stain doesn't show on the kepi-hat's leather chinstrap.
(2) Some varieties of actual Military-issue Confederate buttons had an iron back, due to the serious scarcity of brass in the wartime South.

Do you have a date range?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Creade asked:
> Do you have a date range [for my ironbacked button]?

Iron-back brass-front 2-piece buttons were first made in the latter 1830s... and are still being made today. The fact that yours does NOT have any of the variations of "self-shank back" (which first appear around 1900) means it can be from the earlier end of that time range. But it CAN still be from the 20th-Century. Sorry I cannot be any more specific than that. If I had to guess, I'd say it is from sometime in the second half of the 1800s (1850s/90s).

 

[ncsuwolf]

Not a button expert, but have dug 3-4 “navy” buttons like this. Appears to be brass front and tin back. Some of those were used in military, but as I understand the vast majority were civilian. Could be wrong about this particular button, but all mine are not military.

For reference, here are a few of the “military” buttons I have dug which I later learned were civilian. If the button guys got it wrong, please let me know.

 

[creade]

Creade asked:
> Do you have a date range [for my ironbacked button]?

Iron-back brass-front 2-piece buttons were first made in the latter 1830s... and are still being made today. The fact that yours does NOT have any of the variations of "self-shank back" (which first appear around 1900) means it can be from the earlier end of that time range. But it CAN still be from the 20th-Century. Sorry I cannot be any more specific than that. If I had to guess, I'd say it is from sometime in the second half of the 1800s (1850s/90s).

Thanks!