Very Old Looking Button, Could It Be 1600's?

[coinman123]

Hello! I found this button today in an old overgrown farm field. It rang up as a zinc penny on my metal detector and wasn't very deep. It looks to be a one piece cast flat button, made of brass. The brass is so corroded that I believed it to be pewter when I first found it. The cool thing about it is that it has a drilled shank, my first flat button to ever have one, and I have found close to 200 flat buttons at this point. The front has a cast raised design rather than a typical etched design. I read on some places that this style of button could be very old, maybe even 1600's, but I am not sure. What do you guys think about it?

It's not very big, about the size of a nickel. .22 bullet casing for size.

 

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[john845]

i dont know much about buttons but that does look old... nice find!!!

 

[smokeythecat]

The answer is yes, although it is most likely from the first half of the 18th century. It is a very very nice button~ Very!

 

[Vldetecting]

If the button would be from the 1600's I would believe that it's from the late 1600's to late 1700's. The button has a lot of design and is very fancy so it may have been a more higher ranked person who wore it.

 

[DownNDirty]

Very nice find. Looks like pewter, and definitely a drilled shank. I agree-late 1600s or early 1700s.

 

[coinman123]

Thanks! Happy to know that is more than just a typical late 1700's flat button! Probably worn by one of the people who settled this area in the 1740's!