Three button morning! Help identifying please

[brianc053]

Hi everyone. I went back to the muddy farm this morning (and I wore boots this time), and I found three somewhat similar buttons, all within about 10 feet of each other.

As you'll see in the pictures below:
#1: the first button (on the left) has some sort of horse design on it. You'll see on the back that there's still a shank, buried in all the rust. The weird part about this button is that it rang up a VDI of 5 on my Equinox. What metal would that be? Tin maybe? It is very light and makes a funny sound when I "tink" it on the counter.

#2: the second button is thin and I think it's brass, with no shank on the back and no writing on the back, but the interesting thing is the anchor symbol etched on the front. I'm guessing that this is just a generic anchor and not a military / Navy button. But can anyone help identify this anchor design? It rang up a 17-18 on my Equinox.

#3: The third button (on the right in the picture) is also thin, and is plain on both front and back, and has no shank either. It also rang up a 17-18 on my Equinox.

Thanks for looking and for any information you can share!

- Brian

Please let me know if you want better pictures of any of these.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Great finds! Probably 1840 -1890 on the first two, and the one on the far right I would think is older. Man, I would pound the bajeezus out of that field as long as you can!

 

[DiggerKid2003]

Um, first off, is there a rider on the horse? I seem to remember someone finding a very rare dragoon’s button with a rim like that almost. It may be a sporting/civilian button though.

 

[Digger RJ]

Very Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[brianc053]

Um, first off, is there a rider on the horse? I seem to remember someone finding a very rare dragoon’s button with a rim like that almost. It may be a sporting/civilian button though.

Digger, the horse definitely does NOT have a rider. Maybe the rider fell off... (that's a bad joke). I took a more close-up picture and included that below.

Also, I did some browsing of buttons with anchors on them, and I stumbled across this website: https://www.georgewashingtoninaugur...8-182518th-century-french-navy-button-styles/

Now, I'm not getting too excited and I'm staying very level-headed about this, but the anchor button I found bears a striking resemblance to many of the buttons on that webpage. I'm planning to do more research to find out if there's any connection between the past landowners and the Continental or Royal Navies. (The house that was once there did date to the 1700's, and my town was founded in 1742. And I've found tombacs and Dandy buttons at this same site, so...the site doesn't rule out a possible Rev War era button).

Terry, I noticed your suggestion of possible date ranges and I'm keeping those in mind too.

Oh, two other facts: First, the anchor button has a small amount of gold gilt remaining, visible under a magnifying glass at the bottom of the anchor tip and on the back in 2 places. I'm going to guess that there's more gilt under the dirt, but I'm not cleaning it further yet.
Second, the anchor button is between 24.5mm and 25mm in diameter. Many of those buttons are 22mm, but some are slightly larger - like mine.
(Just in case I've put the anchor button into a coin sleeve so that I'll stop handling it directly.)

Anyway, time for more research!!!

- Brian

 

[DiggerKid2003]

Certainly could be, I know there are probably hundreds of variations of anchor/navy buttons and I’m sure it will be hard to find an exact match. I hope you do, good luck on your research! Also, I’m thinking that horse must be a sportsmen, but who knows maybe an expert will pop in and deem it a rare loyalist or something lol.

 

[ironhorse]

I like your Royal Navy button!
Right look and size for the buttons used during the Rev War...good going!

 

[JohnDHomanIII]

The anchor button, appears to be a Revolutionary War era Royal Navy button.
https://www.georgewashingtoninaugur...8-182518th-century-french-navy-button-styles/

 

[Wildcat1750]

Congratulations on a trio of great button finds!

 

[Calabash Digger]

congrats!

 

[Steve in PA]

A couple nice buttons there. I agree on the anchor button being Royal Navy. The wide rim on the horse button leads me to believe it is an 1830s Jacksonian button. There were a lot of varieties of Jacksonian type buttons.

 

[brianc053]

A couple nice buttons there. I agree on the anchor button being Royal Navy. The wide rim on the horse button leads me to believe it is an 1830s Jacksonian button. There were a lot of varieties of Jacksonian type buttons.

View attachment 1879878

Thank you Steve for the Jacksonian guidance.
What kind of metal were those Jacksonians made out of? I ask because the button I found is not brass; it's lighter weight and it is magnetic. The rust on the back seems to indicate that at least the shank was iron, but I'm wondering if the button itself is tin. It "feels" like tin. (i.e. lightweight).

Thanks again!

 

[Steve in PA]

Thank you Steve for the Jacksonian guidance.
What kind of metal were those Jacksonians made out of? I ask because the button I found is not brass; it's lighter weight and it is magnetic. The rust on the back seems to indicate that at least the shank was iron, but I'm wondering if the button itself is tin. It "feels" like tin. (i.e. lightweight).

Thanks again!

The Jacksonian buttons were brass, and based on the color yours in the picture, it looks like brass. The raised rim on a Jacksonian button was a separate piece, so they are technically two piece buttons.

 

[Steve in PA]

See the button third row down, third from left.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.bysonbuttons.com/forsalepics/halfcards/N256.jpg[/FONT]

 

[brianc053]

See the button third row down, third from left.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.bysonbuttons.com/forsalepics/halfcards/N256.jpg[/FONT]

Thanks again Steve. I agree that my button is similar to these.
I should have noted that this button is 25mm in diameter; I was reading about these Jacksonian buttons and they seem to be much smaller (13mm typically). Does that make mine something different? Or were they made as a larger coat-sized button too?

It's possible it's the iron shank that is attracted to the magnet in this situation, and the rest could be brass.

- Brian

 

[Steve in PA]

Thanks again Steve. I agree that my button is similar to these.
I should have noted that this button is 25mm in diameter; I was reading about these Jacksonian buttons and they seem to be much smaller (13mm typically). Does that make mine something different? Or were they made as a larger coat-sized button too?

It's possible it's the iron shank that is attracted to the magnet in this situation, and the rest could be brass.

- Brian

I'm not an expert on the Jacksonian style buttons. From what I understand they were typically smaller. But you can see a few larger ones in the picture I posted, so I don't think size is a determining factor.