What kinda button is this??Kurt Frantz help me out!

[cabnfvr]

Found thisbutton at thesame placei found a barber quarter. Its also acivil war camp . Andused to be a tannery.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[Icewing]

Probably a concho.

 

[Hawks88]

Nice find. Congrats

 

[A2coins]

whats on the front

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I too would like to see a picture of the front of this piece.
As Icewing suggested it does resemble a Concho, but I don't think this is a button, it more likely came from a belt.


"The origin of the Concho, or Concha is unclear. However, there is evidence that the Navajo people borrowed ideas from Plains Native Americans and Mexican traders' bridle ornamentation to create the first Concho belts. Mexican and American silver dollars were hammered flat and ornamented by Navajo craftsmen when other sources of silver were scarce. Concho belts are among the most recognizable pieces of Native American Indian jewelry. Conchas (named after the Spanish word for shell) are round or oval disks of silver.

The word ‘Concho’ refers in general to buttons or button-shaped, as mussel shells were used to create buttons, both historically, and into near-modern times. It is most probably that the round and oval-shapes of the jewelry form was reminiscent of buttons, or button-like in nature, and that Spanish settlers referred to buttons as “Conchas” by virtue of the common mussel shells that were used to make buttons. Where the confusion stems from is also that Native American Indians did use mussel shells as trade goods, using the pink-purple interiors in jewelry, and incorporated into some hand tools. Archeological digs have revealed that mussel shells were traded widely and were used in fetish or talisman jewelry; and the shells may have always served as “buttons” or fasteners. Too, since the first use of the hammered metal Concho was in belts.

And so, Conchas, also called Conchos, are used in groups to decorate belts. The belt itself is called a "concha belt" or sometimes a "Concho belt." Similar to the origin of the Squash Blossom Necklace design, the concha belt is yet another example foreign element of design which the Navajo People adopted, reworked and developed into a signature piece jewelry and a symbol of the Navajo nation. They may have borrowed this element from the Mexican bridle ornaments (originally brought to Spain by the Moors of Northern Africa) or from the oval-shaped hair ornaments worn by the Plains Indians, then adding designs copied from the leather stamps of the Spanish and Moors. All in all, the form is adaptation, artistic exploration and interpretation that is now considered uniquely Navajo. The circular or oval shape is one of the most pleasing of all artistic forms, lending itself to many expressions of the form in nature, the most obvious being the Sun and Moon and Stars."

Dave