✅ SOLVED Very tiny button back...

[cti4sw]

I know it's a button back piece, and it appears to have lettering on it but I can't make it out, even under a microscope. I'm loath to do any real cleaning, like peroxide, because it's so small. Mostly looking for opinions from people who have seen similar ones. Thanks!



Diameter appears to be between 0.42" - 0.45". Thickness is 0.02". I was not able to locate the rest of the button in or around the hole.

Here are the post-cleaning pics:





The only letters I can make out depend on whether they face in (ALI - towards the shaft) or out (ITY - towards the rim).

And the pic of the front:



Possible lettering:

 

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[duggap]

Are you sure that is not a coin button?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I'm sure the thickness measurement is wrong, because a WalMart recipt is .002-inch thick, and a piece of computer-printer paper is .004-inch. (A digital caliper sure is a handy tool.)

So let's assume the digger meant the relic is .02-inch thick (two one-hundredths of an inch). It is too thin to be a flatbutton. I think the digger is right that it is the broken-out back of a 2-piece button. Notice that its edges are irregular, not a perfect circle. I've dug the same thing many times, still "loosely" in position in the crumbling 2-piece button.

There's a way to know whether it is a button-back or not. Because it has a "raised-mark-in-depressed-channel" marking," there ought to be a reverse-image of the stamping on the other side of the thin disc.

 

[cti4sw]

I know it's too small to be a button by itself; I already knew that it's the back of a 2-piece button. I apologize if that wasn't clear.

I will post a picture of the other side in a moment.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

might be one of those button backs with a eagle and stars on the back.... look for that carefully ..

 

[cti4sw]

I only have the one piece, that's pictured. I don't have the rest of the button, unfortunately, and I don't particularly recall seeing anything eye-catching on the other side. I'll check it again, as soon as I find the damn thing.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

May be similar to this one Cti - http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/378276-button-back-id.html

 

[cti4sw]

May be similar to this one Cti - http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/378276-button-back-id.html

Yeah, with exception to the confirmed wording, his description matches mine for the most part. However, from his picture, his back piece's diameter is slightly larger than mine. Not to say that they wouldn't be similar or the same, just noting some extra wear & tear mine may have. Maybe when I get home I'll drop it in some peroxide to see if any lettering clears up. 1820s, you say? That would fall into place with other coins & relics from this site. Although any possible indication of an eagle on the back is long gone.

 

[cti4sw]

There is nothing on the front of the piece. I'll get a pic tomorrow under the microscope and post it. It's in peroxide now to see if that lettering clears up.

 

[cti4sw]

Added post-peroxide pics to OP.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thanks for the photo showing the disc's front. That causes me to change my opinion... despite its extreme thin-ness (reported to be two 1-hundredths of an inch) it's not the back of a 2-piece button, it is a 1-piece flatbutton. I have to say I'm surprised, because 2/100-inch is the thickness of a business-card. The explanation for your flatbutton being so extremely thin is that it has been seriously corroded by acidic soil. Note the "grainy" look of the plain brass front. It wasn't manufactured looking that way. The acidic soil corrosion is also why the backmark's lettering can no longer be read.

Just in case you don't already know:
Brass 1-piece "plain front" flatbuttons with a raised-lettering backmark first appear about 1790. They continued to be manufactured into the 1830s, after which they fell out of public favor due to the advent of inexpensively-priced "ornate" 2-piece buttons.

 

[cti4sw]

Any ideas as to what the lettering could be on the back given the letters I could see? It just occurred to me that it could be "ALI" or "ITY" from QUALITY. Do you know of any early buttons like this that would say QUALITY on the back in raised letters?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Some variations of the "Quality rating" in raised-letters backmarks I've seen in the past 39 years are:
Extra Quality (which is the most common version)
Rich Quality
Best Quality
Superior Quality
Superfine Quality.

 

[cti4sw]

Thanks CBG and HSD!